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Evolution of terrestrial birds (1 Viewer)
- Thread starter Richard Klim
- Start date
Xenospiza
Distracted
It may be a silly question, but would mammals also show a similar success for clades that originate in Africa? If you look at "typical" Australian and South American mammals, they have not had much success outside their continents. They are of course even less likely to disperse over water...
Mysticete
Well-known member
Elephants are the only Afrotheres (the clade of mammals that evolved in Africa) that have had widespread success, although the (likely anthropogenic) end Pleistocene extinction severely reduced their diversity.
Other Afrotheres include Hyraxes, Aardvarks, Golden Moles, Tenrecs, Otter Shrews, and Sirenians.
Other Afrotheres include Hyraxes, Aardvarks, Golden Moles, Tenrecs, Otter Shrews, and Sirenians.
. . . how about hominids? Isn't that a pretty successful group of mammals coming out of Africa
But only one surviving species, & much much later.
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Snapdragyn
Well-known member
Didn't the Laurasiatheres descend from mammals which colonized from Africa, though, prior to the separation of those two major groups?
So w/ both birds & mammals seeming to originate in Gondwana (or at least their most basal surviving groups), was pretty much everything in the northern continental mass wiped out?
So w/ both birds & mammals seeming to originate in Gondwana (or at least their most basal surviving groups), was pretty much everything in the northern continental mass wiped out?
I would think that Antarctica plays a larger role in avian evolution than what this study seems to imply. Certainly, passerines and parrots managed to reach South America through Antarctica from Australia (or perhaps Antarctica may have been a nucleus for these groups?). I believe Africa was the first of the southern continents to split off from Antarctica. Would explain why Africa is so species poor when it comes to parrots, while both South America and Australia are comparatively species rich. Would also explain why both South America and Australia have a predisposition of having "old" passerine families (suboscines in South America, lyrebirds/honeyeaters/fairy-wrens, etc in Australia) that form a large percentage of their passerine diversity.
I would think that the parrots and suboscine (woodcreepers, antbirds, tyrannid flycatchers, etc) passerines in South America are very old radiations. The tanagers, warblers, icterids, etc most likely arrived later.
Carlos
I would think that the parrots and suboscine (woodcreepers, antbirds, tyrannid flycatchers, etc) passerines in South America are very old radiations. The tanagers, warblers, icterids, etc most likely arrived later.
Carlos
Mysticete
Well-known member
Primates only reached Africa in the Late Eocene (off the top of my head). So while they were successful on the continent, they are not native. My understanding is that Laurasiatheria evolved in the Northern Hemisphere, and there are critters close to primates, carnivores and glires (the rodent/rabbit group) at least present in Asia and North America before the KT extinction.
Bear in mind that that the ecology of small mammals and birds is pretty different. Mammals are probably predisposed to better weather an asteroid strike, which because of circulation patterns might not have caused as much trouble for austral birds as for northern species. Also neornith birds would have faced competition from the enantiornith birds, which seemed to perhaps be the dominant northern hemisphere bird group.
Bear in mind that that the ecology of small mammals and birds is pretty different. Mammals are probably predisposed to better weather an asteroid strike, which because of circulation patterns might not have caused as much trouble for austral birds as for northern species. Also neornith birds would have faced competition from the enantiornith birds, which seemed to perhaps be the dominant northern hemisphere bird group.
Richard Klim
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Peter Kovalik
Well-known member
New World Vultures
Supporting information:
Also phylogenetic tree of Cathartidae (P. Ericson, unpublished).
Supporting information:
Also phylogenetic tree of Cathartidae (P. Ericson, unpublished).
Richard Klim
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