Abstract:
:The temporal stability of plant reproductive features on islands has rarely been tested. Using flowers, fruits/cones and seeds from a well-dated (23 Ma) Miocene Lagerstätte in New Zealand, we show that across 23 families and 30 genera of forest angiosperms and conifers, reproductive features have remained constant for more than 20 Myr. Insect-, wind- and bird-pollinated flowers and wind- and bird-dispersed diaspores all indicate remarkable reproductive niche conservatism, despite widespread environmental and biotic change. In the past 10 Myr, declining temperatures and the absence of low-latitude refugia caused regional extinction of thermophiles, while orogenic processes steepened temperature, precipitation and nutrient gradients, limiting forest niches. Despite these changes, the palaeontological record provides empirical support for evidence from phylogeographical studies of strong niche conservatism within lineages and biomes.
journal_name
Biol Lettjournal_title
Biology lettersauthors
Conran JG,Lee WG,Lee DE,Bannister JM,Kaulfuss Udoi
10.1098/rsbl.2014.0647subject
Has Abstractpub_date
2014-10-01 00:00:00pages
20140647issue
10eissn
1744-9561issn
1744-957Xpii
rsbl.2014.0647journal_volume
10pub_type
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