Rapid biological speciation driven by tectonic evolution in New Zealand

By D. Craw, P. Upton, C. Burridge, G. Wallis, J. Waters. 2016

89 citations recorded by the source corpus.

Plate tectonic motions can influence biological systems. Numerical modelling of the topographic evolution of New Zealand, combined with fish phylogenetic analyses suggest mountain growth directly influenced biological diversification. Collisions between tectonic plates lead to the rise of new mountain ranges that can separate biological populations and ultimately result in new species1. However, the identification of links between tectonic mountain-building and biological speciation is confounded by environmental and ecological factors2,3,4. 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 existing5,6 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.

Subfields: Genetics, Nature and Landscape Conservation, Paleontology

View Paper: https://www.semanticscholar.org/paper/405b18848e89c1726a1f4c0320af4abb9221ec63

How researchers see this paper

The researchers whose trusted networks rank it highest, strongest advocate first. Every researcher gets a different order.

In Genetics

In Nature and Landscape Conservation

In Paleontology

Citations in the corpus

Building mountain biodiversity: Geological and evolutionary processes (2019, background): “5 and disappearance of habitats within mountain ranges (24) (Fig.”
The changing course of the Amazon River in the Neogene: center stage for Neotropical diversification (2018, background): “The role of river capture in biotic diversification has also been demonstrated in many other re - gions of the world (Stanford, Ward, 1993; Robinson et al ., 2002; Ward et al ., 2002; Burridge et al ., 2006; Smith et al ., 2010; Carrea et al ., 2014; Craw et al ., 2016).”
Why mountains matter for biodiversity (2019, background): “The evolution of freshwater fishes in New Zealand further illus - trates the close relationship between mountain building and biotic evolution (Craw, Upton, Burridge, Wallis, & Waters, 2015).”