Understanding the distribution and genetic structure of African mammals is key to reconstructing the continent's evolutionary history. While some parts of the continent (e.g., lowlands, mountain forests or savannah biomes) are now relatively well-studied, arid regions remain underexplored despite offering unique insights into adaptation to extreme environmental conditions. This study aimed to reconstruct phylogeographic patterns and past-to-future distributional dynamics of two gerbil genera—Pachyuromys and Desmodilliscus.
North Africa, including the Sahara Desert and the Sahel.
Two gerbil species from two sister monotypic genera: Pachyuromys duprasi Lataste, 1880 (Northern Sahara) and Desmodilliscus braueri von Wettstein, 1916 (Sahel region).
Using the most comprehensive available dataset, we examined mitochondrial markers (CYTB and COI) and built ecological niche models across past (Last Glacial Maximum, Mid-Holocene), present and future climate scenarios to investigate genetic structure and potential distributional shifts of both species.
Desmodilliscus braueri exhibits a marked East–West phylogeographic structure, influenced by barriers such as the Niger River and Paleolake Chad. In contrast, Pachyuromys duprasi has genetically divergent populations in Egypt (which may be affected by a sampling gap in central-northern Sahara), but no broader spatial structure in its regions. Niche models suggest range contractions and expansions linked to climatic oscillations for both species. The predicted distribution of Pachyuromys reflects distribution area pulses, aligning with pulses in the extent of the Sahara.
Our findings emphasise the evolutionary significance of arid zones and the need for further research on species' responses to desertification and climate-driven range shifts. The contrasting patterns between the two species underscore different evolutionary trajectories in different taxa living in arid and semi-arid environments.
Dung beetles perform key ecosystem functions in forests; however, their assemblage structure in temperate Asia is not well understood. This study investigated dung beetle assemblages across 18 forests in Japan to identify their patterns and the environmental variables influencing them.
Japan.
Forest dung beetles (Geotrupidae, Scarabaeidae).
We surveyed dung beetle assemblages in 18 forests spanning broad climatic and environmental gradients. Taxonomic metrics included species richness, abundance, and species composition; functional metrics included the community-weighted mean (CWM) body mass and functional dispersion (FDis) of body length and mass. Environmental variables included mean annual temperature (MAT), mean annual precipitation, soil properties, plant traits and sika deer presence.
Generalised linear model analyses showed that MAT had a significant influence, with colder sites dominated by the large-bodied Phelotrupes laevistriatus, resulting in higher CWM body mass. Soil pH was negatively associated with dung beetle abundance, and deer presence tended to increase abundance, although effects varied among sites. FDis of dung beetles showed no significant associations with environmental variables, and plant traits were unrelated to any dung beetle metrics. Species composition also varied with MAT, soil pH and deer presence.
Climate, soil conditions, and deer presence are important factors shaping dung beetle assemblages in Japanese forests. These factors, together with future climate warming, may influence the assemblage composition and the functional roles of dung beetles in dung decomposition.
The Andes are a global biodiversity hotspot, and the formation of this mountain range is linked to the rapid diversification of many lineages across the Tree of Life. The high species richness of the Andes might also act as a reservoir for lineages to disperse across the South American continent. Recent syntheses of Andean geological history and the accumulation of phylogenetic studies of different Andean clades present an opportunity for a synthesis of the historical biogeography of the Andean biota.
The Andes.
All taxonomic groups.
We conducted a meta-analysis of phylogenetic studies, scoring disjunction events within and out of the Andes inferred from biogeographic reconstructions.
We show that, across time and clades, dispersals among regions in the Andes are approximately as common as dispersals out of the Andes. The greatest number of extra-Andean disjunctions originated from the northern Andes, even though the northern section of this mountain range is the most recently uplifted. There has been continued bi-directional movement within the Andes over the last 50 million years. Dispersals northward occur at a slightly, but significantly, greater rate than dispersals southward. Andean plant crown clades tended to be older than animal crown clades, which almost exclusively originate in the last 30 million years.
Our findings reveal that the Andes have equally acted as a reservoir and a corridor of biodiversity across clades with widely divergent dispersal strategies.
To investigate effects of anthropogenic development at regional and landscape scales on the distributions of mid-trophic level mammalian predators (mesopredators) across the southeastern United States.
The study area encompasses seven ecoregions across a large portion of the southeastern United States.
Mammalian mesopredators.
We compiled trail camera data from 21 studies across the southeastern United States and used occupancy modelling to assess mesopredator distributions and account for heterogeneous detection probabilities. We examined drivers of occupancy at regional and landscape scales. At the regional scale, we assessed occupancy patterns across ecoregions differing in topography, productivity, and human population growth. At the landscape scale, we analysed the influence of land cover types (forest, developed, agriculture) and non-native coyote (Canis latrans) activity on occupancy.
Regionally, mesopredator occurrence was highest in ecoregions characterised by low productivity and greater topographic variability. Common species (predicted occupancy ≥ 0.19) showed positive associations with developed and agricultural land covers, while less common species (predicted occupancy ≤ 0.10) showed negative associations or were too rare to model. Coyote activity had mixed effects, positively associated with some species while negatively associated with others.
Anthropogenic development affects mesopredator communities at both regional and landscape scales, favouring generalist species that are tolerant of human-modified landscapes.
Parab, T., Singh, A., Alashi, N., Modak, N., Singh, A.P., Bhave, M., Nagarale, S. and Lyngdoh, S. (2025), What Defines the Groupwise Compositional Turnover of Eurasian Phylloscopus Warblers? Insights From Zeta (ζ) Diversity and MS-GDM. J Biogeogr, 52: 657-669. https://doi.org/10.1111/jbi.15060.
In the published article, the second affiliation of the first author, Tushar Parab, was incorrectly listed as follows:
Academy of Scientific and Innovative Research (AcSIR), New Delhi, India
The correct affiliation, as required by the doctoral institution, should be as follows:
Academy of Scientific and Innovative Research (AcSIR), Ghaziabad – 201002, India
Additionally, this affiliation should also be included as the second affiliation of the corresponding author, Salvador Lyngdoh, which is currently missing in the published version.
We apologize for this error.
We reconstructed the biogeographical history of a species-rich legume genus by testing alternative hypotheses on the origin and expansion of neotropical open-vegetation areas, with particular emphasis on the campos rupestres.
Neotropics.
Chamaecrista (Leguminosae), one of the most speciose genera of the neotropical region.
We reconstructed a fossil-calibrated phylogeny of Chamaecrista species and built a comprehensive database of species occurrences. We fitted and compared nine biogeographic models that differed in area availability and dispersal rates across time frames. These time frames were defined based on major climatic processes that have influenced neotropical open-vegetation areas.
Under the best-fitting biogeographical model, Chamaecrista originated in the Amazon during the Mid Eocene. A single ancestral Chamaecrista lineage colonised the campos rupestres before the Late Oligocene–Mid Miocene, when climatic shifts presumably expanded lowland open-vegetation areas in the Neotropics. Most diversification of Chamaecrista species occurred in the campos rupestres from the Late Miocene to the Quaternary. Multiple ancestral Chamaecrista lineages dispersed from the campos rupestres to the Cerrado from the Mid Miocene onwards, while few lineages dispersed into the Caatinga during the same period. We propose that the campos rupestres might have functioned as a montane reservoir of plant diversity, harbouring lineages that later dispersed into adjacent lowland areas.
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