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Rapid biological speciation driven by tectonic evolution in New Zealand
Citation
Craw, D and Upton, P and Burridge, CP and Wallis, GP and Waters, JM, Rapid biological speciation driven by tectonic evolution in New Zealand, Nature Geoscience, 9, (2) pp. 140-144. ISSN 1752-0894 (2016) [Refereed Article]
Copyright Statement
© 2016 Macmillan Publishers
DOI: doi:10.1038/NGEO2618
Abstract
Collisions between tectonic plates lead to the rise of new mountain ranges that can separate biological populations and ultimately result in new species. However, the identification of links between tectonic mountain-building and biological speciation is confounded by environmental and ecological factors. Thus, there are surprisingly few well-documented examples of direct tectonic controls on terrestrial biological speciation. Here we present examples from New Zealand, where the rapid evolution of 18 species of freshwater fishes has resulted from parallel tectonic landscape evolution. We use numerical models to reconstruct changes in the deep crustal structure and surface drainage catchments of the southern island of New Zealand over the past 25 million years. We show that the island and mountain topography evolved in six principal tectonic zones, which have distinct drainage catchments that separated fish populations. We use new and existing, phylogenetic analyses of freshwater fish populations, based on over 1,000 specimens from more than 400 localities, to show that fish genomes can retain evidence of this tectonic landscape development, with a clear correlation between geologic age and extent of DNA sequence divergence. We conclude that landscape evolution has controlled on-going biological diversification over the past 25 million years.
Item Details
Item Type: | Refereed Article |
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Keywords: | speciation, mountain building, tectonics, fish |
Research Division: | Biological Sciences |
Research Group: | Evolutionary biology |
Research Field: | Biogeography and phylogeography |
Objective Division: | Expanding Knowledge |
Objective Group: | Expanding knowledge |
Objective Field: | Expanding knowledge in the biological sciences |
UTAS Author: | Burridge, CP (Associate Professor Christopher Burridge) |
ID Code: | 107018 |
Year Published: | 2016 |
Web of Science® Times Cited: | 38 |
Deposited By: | Zoology |
Deposited On: | 2016-03-01 |
Last Modified: | 2017-11-01 |
Downloads: | 0 |
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