[OANNES Foro] Hopping Hotspots: Global Shifts in Marine Biodiversity

[Mario Cabrejos]

      Science 1 August 2008:
      Vol. 321. no. 5889, pp. 654 - 657
      DOI: 10.1126/science.1155674
       

Hopping Hotspots: Global Shifts in Marine Biodiversity
W. Renema,1,4 Renema en naturalis.nl * D. R. Bellwood,2 J. C. Braga,3 K. Bromfield,4 R. Hall,5 K. G. Johnson,6 P. Lunt,7 C. P. Meyer,8 L. B. McMonagle,6,9 R. J. Morley,5,10 A. O'Dea,11 J. A. Todd,6 F. P. Wesselingh,1 M. E. J. Wilson,12 J. M. Pandolfi4 
1 Nationaal Natuurhistorisch Museum, Naturalis, 2300 RA, Leiden, Netherlands.
2 Australian Research Council Centre of Excellence for Coral Reef Studies, School of Marine and Tropical Biology, James Cook University, Townsville, QLD 4811, Australia.
3 Departamento de Estratigrafia y Paleontologia, Universidad de Granada, 18002 Granada, Spain.
4 Australian Research Council Centre of Excellence for Coral Reef Studies, Centre for Marine Studies, University of Queensland, Brisbane, QLD 4072, Australia.
5 Southeast Asia Research Group, Royal Holloway University of London, Egham, Surrey TW20 0EX, UK.
6 Department of Paleontology, The Natural History Museum, London SW7 5BD, UK.
7 Murphy Oil, Kuala Lumpur 50088, Malaysia.
8 National Museum of Natural History, Smithsonian Institution, Washington, DC 20013, USA.
9 Department of Earth Sciences, University of Durham, Durham DH1 3LE, UK.
10 Palynova, Littleport CB6 1PY, UK.
11 Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute, Balboa, Ancón, Republic of Panamá.
12 Department of Applied Geology, Curtin University, Perth, WA 6845, Australia. 


Hotspots of high species diversity are a prominent feature of modern global biodiversity patterns. Fossil and molecular evidence is starting to reveal the history of these hotspots. There have been at least three marine biodiversity hotspots during the past 50 million years. They have moved across almost half the globe, with their timing and locations coinciding with major tectonic events. The birth and death of successive hotspots highlights the link between environmental change and biodiversity patterns. The antiquity of the taxa in the modern Indo-Australian Archipelago hotspot emphasizes the role of pre-Pleistocene events in shaping modern diversity patterns. 

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