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Science 31 March 2006:
Vol. 311. no. 5769, p. 1832
DOI: 10.1126/science.311.5769.1832a
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Figure 1 Understanding how the high plant species diversity of tropical forests arose has been hampered by the scant fossil evidence of lowland tropical rainforest species diversity in the geological record. Jaramillo et al. (p. 1893) now present a 45-million-year time series of plant diversity in the Neotropics with an unparalleled resolution. Changes in tropical-biome area were the main factor driving local tropical diversity. The observed diversity pattern resembled reconstructed global temperatures, which suggests that global climate mediated the change in tropical-biome area. Past episodes of climate warming have driven local speciation by increasing the area of tropical-like climate. Global cooling, however, drove local extinction by reducing the tropical-like area.

CREDIT: JARAMILLO AND RUEDA, 2006




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