Great American Biotic Interchange in birds

The sudden exchange of mammals over the land bridge between the previously isolated continents of North and South America is among the most celebrated events in the faunal history of the New World. This exchange resulted in the rapid merging of continental mammalian faunas that had evolved in almost...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences - PNAS 2009-12, Vol.106 (51), p.21737-21742
Main Authors: Weir, Jason T, Bermingham, Eldredge, Schluter, Dolph
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Animal Migration
Animals
Biogeography
Biological Evolution
Biological Sciences
Birds
Continents
Dispersal
Evolution
Fauna
Fossils
Geography
Habitats
Land bridges
Mammals
Passeriformes - classification
Passeriformes - genetics
Phylogenetics
Phylogeny
Sequence Analysis, DNA
Species Specificity
Tropical forests
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Summary:The sudden exchange of mammals over the land bridge between the previously isolated continents of North and South America is among the most celebrated events in the faunal history of the New World. This exchange resulted in the rapid merging of continental mammalian faunas that had evolved in almost complete isolation from each other for tens of millions of years. Yet, the wider importance of land bridge-mediated interchange to faunal mixing in other groups is poorly known because of the incompleteness of the fossil record. In particular, the ability of birds to fly may have rendered a land bridge unnecessary for faunal merging. Using molecular dating of the unique bird faunas of the two continents, we show that rates of interchange increased dramatically after land bridge completion in tropical forest-specializing groups, which rarely colonize oceanic islands and have poor dispersal abilities across water barriers, but not in groups comprised of habitat generalists. These results support the role of the land bridge in the merging of the tropical forest faunas of North and South America. In contrast to mammals, the direction of traffic across the land bridge in birds was primarily south to north. The event transformed the tropical avifauna of the New World.
ISSN:0027-8424
1091-6490
DOI:10.1073/pnas.0903811106