Hopping Hotspots: Global shifts in marine biodiversity

Renema, Willem and Bellwood, D. and Braga, J and Bromfield, K and Hall, R and Johnson, K and Lunt, P and Meyer, C and McMonagle, L and Morley, R and O'Dea, A and Todd, J and Wesslingh, F and Wilson, Moyra and Pandolfi, J. 2008. Hopping Hotspots: Global shifts in marine biodiversity. Science 321: pp. 654-657.

Source Title

Science

DOI

10.1126/science.1155674

ISSN

00368075

Faculty

Department of Applied Geology

Faculty of Science and Engineering

The Western Australian School of Mines

Remarks

The link to the journal’s home page is: http://www.sciencemag.org/magazine.dtl

URI

http://hdl.handle.net/20.500.11937/31455

Collection

Curtin Research Publications

Abstract

Hotspots of high species diversity are a prominent feature of modern global biodiversity patterns. Fossil and molecular evidence is starting to reveal the history of these hotspots. There have been at least three marine biodiversity hotspots during the past 50 million years. They have moved across almost half the globe, with their timing and locations coinciding with major tectonic events. The birth and death of successive hotspots highlights the link between environmental change and biodiversity patterns. The antiquity of the taxa in the modern Indo-Australian Archipelago hotspot emphasizes the role of pre-Pleistocene events in shaping modern diversity patterns.