Building large trees by combining phylogenetic information: a complete phylogeny of the extant Carnivora (Mammalia)

BININDA-EMONDS, O.R.P.; GITTLEMAN, J.L.; PURVIS, A. 1999. Building large trees by combining phylogenetic information: a complete phylogeny of the extant Carnivora (Mammalia). Biol. Rev. 74:143-175.

Abstract. One way to build large, more comprehensive phylogenies is to combine the vast amount of phylogenetic information already available. We review the two main strategies for accomplishing this (combining raw data versus combining trees), but employ a relatively new variant of the latter: supertree construction. The utility of one supertree technique, matrix representation using parsimony analysis (MRP), is demonstrated by deriving a complete phylogeny for all 271 extant species of the Carnivora from 177 literature sources. Beyond providing a 'consensus' estimate of carnivore phylogeny, the tree also indicates taxa for which the relationships remain controversial (e.g. herpestids, viverrids, and intrageneric relationships in the procyonids). Times of divergence throughout the tree were also estimated from 74 literature sources based on both fossil and molecular data. We use the phylogeny to show that some lineages within the Mustelinae and Canidae contain significantly more species than expected for their age, illustrating the tree's utility for studies of macroevolution. It will also provide a useful foundation for comparative and conservational studies involving the carnivores.

Differences in population density and energy use between birds and mammals: a macroecological perspective

SILVA, M.; BROWN, J.H.; DOWNING, J.A. 1997. Differences in population density and energy use between birds and mammals: a macroecological perspective. Journal of Animal Ecology 66(3):327-340.

Abstract.
1. Data from 364 mammal and 564 bird species were used to compare these two taxa in the patterns of variation in population density and energy use as a function of body mass.
2. This study demonstrates previously unappreciated quantitative differences between mammals and birds. Over a wide range of sizes, population densities and rates of energy use are at least one order of magnitude higher in mammals than in birds of similar size. The highest population densities are found in species that weigh about 100 g in mammals and 30 g in birds.
3. Comparisons between mammals and birds from the same dietary category indicate that mammals maintain higher densities and use more energy than birds. Insectivorous mammals and birds maintain the lowest densities.
4. Flying mammals and birds reach lower densities and use more energy than nonflying forms.

5. These findings reveal relationships between the morphology, physiology and behaviour of individual organisms and the ecological performance of these endothermic vertebrates in populations, communities and ecosystems: relationships that have not previously been appreciated.

Holocene vegetation chance and the mammal faunas of South America and Africa

VIVO, M.; CARMIGNOTTO, A.P. 2004. Holocene vegetation chance and the mammal faunas of South America and Africa. Journal of Biogeography 31:943-957.

Abstract
Aim. Although sharing many similarities in their vegetation types, South America and Africa harbour very dissimilar recent mammal faunas, not only taxonomically but also in terms of several faunistic patterns. However late Pleistocene and mid-Holocene faunas, albeit taxonomically distinct, presented many convergent attributes. Here we propose that the effects of the Holocene climatic change on vegetation physiognomy has played a crucial role in shaping the extant mammalian faunistic patterns.
Location. South America and Africa from the late Pleistocene to the present.
Methods. Data presented here have been compiled from many distinct sources, including palaeontological and neontological mammalian studies, palaeoclimatology, palynology, and publications on vegetation ecology. Data on Pleistocene, Holocene and extant mammal faunas of South America and Africa allowed us to establish a number of similar and dissimilar faunistic patterns between the two continents across time. We then considered what changes in vegetation physiognomy would have occurred under the late Pleistocene last

glacial maximum (LGM) and the Holocene climatic optimum (HCO) climatic regimes. We have ordained these proposed vegetation changes along rough physiognomic seral stages according to assumptions based on current botanical research. Finally, we have associated our hypothesized vegetation changes in South America and Africa with mammalian faunistic patterns, establishing a putative causal relationship between them.

Results. The extant mammal faunas of South America and Africa differ widely in taxonomical composition; the number of medium and large species they possess; behavioural and ecological characteristics related to herbivore herding, migration and predation; and biogeographical patterns. All such distinctions are mostly

related to the open formation faunas, and have been completely established around the mid-Holocene. Considering that the mid-Holocene was a time of greater humidity than the late Pleistocene, vegetation cover in South America and Africa would have been dominated by forest or closed vegetation landscapes, at

least for most of their lower altitude tropical regions. We attribute the loss of larger-sized mammal lineages in South America to the decrease of open vegetation area, and their survival in Africa to the existence of vast savannas in formerly steppic or desertic areas in subtropical Africa, north and south of the equator. Alternative explanations, mostly dealing with the disappearance of South American megamammals, are then reviewed and criticized.

Main conclusions. The reduction of open formation areas during the HCO in South America and Africa explains most of the present distinct faunistic patterns between the two continents. While South America would have lost most of its open formations within the 30 latitudinal belt, Africa would have kept large areas suitable to the open formation mammalian fauna in areas presently occupied by desert and semi-arid vegetation. Thus, the same general climatic events that affected South America in the late Pleistocene and Holocene also affected Africa, leading to our present day faunistic dissimilarities by maintaining the African mammalian communities almost unchanged while dramatically altering those of South America.

Geographic range and body size in Neotropical marsupials

OLIFIERS, N.; VIEIRA, M.V.; GRELLE, C.E.V. 2004. Geographic range and body size in Neotropical marsupials. Global Ecology and Biogeography 13:439-444.

Abstract.
Aim. Our aim is to investigate the relationship between body size and geographical range in Neotropical marsupials, considering the possible effects of latitude and phylogeny.
Location. Neotropical region.
Methods. Phylogenetic generalized least-squares regression method (PGLS) is used to investigate the relationship between body size, geographical range, and latitude considering the phylogenetic relationship between species. Data for 22 species were compiled from the literature.
Results. The scattergram of body size vs. geographical range was triangular in shape. Body size and geographical range were positively correlated throughout the phylogeny. Latitude was not important to this relationship.
Conclusions. The polygonal relationship between geographical range and body size seems to be moulded by ecological and geographical constraints rather than by a common association with latitude.