Neogene hyperaridity in Arabia drove the directions of mammalian dispersal between Africa and Eurasia
Authors/Creators
- 1. Department of Geosciences, Eberhard-Karls-University of Tübingen, Tübingen, Germany, Senckenberg Centre for Human Evolution and Palaeoenvironment, Tübingen, Germany
- 2. National Museum of Natural History, Bulgarian Academy of Sciences, Sofia, Bulgaria
- 3. Research Institute for Earth Sciences, Geologic Survey of Iran, Teheran, Iran
- 4. Senckenberg Naturhistorische Sammlungen Dresden, GeoPlasma Lab, Dresden, Germany
- 5. Department of Geosciences, Eberhard-Karls-University of Tübingen, Tübingen, Germany
- 6. Institute of Mechatronic Engineering, Technical University Dresden, Dresden, Germany
- 7. Department of Geosciences, Eberhard-Karls-University of Tübingen, Tübingen, Germany, Department of Geology, Faculty of Science, Mansoura University, Mansoura, Egypt
- 8. Department of Anthropology, University of Toronto, Toronto, Canada
- 9. Institute of Biology and Environmental Science, University of Oldenburg, Oldenburg, Germany
Description
The evolution of the present-day African savannah fauna has been substantially influenced by the dispersal of Eurasian ancestors into Africa. The ancestors evolved endemically, together with the autochthonous taxa, into extant Afrotropical clades during the last 5 million years. However, it is unclear why Eurasian ancestors moved into Africa. Here we use sedimentological observations and soluble salt geochemical analyses of samples from a sedimentary sequence in Western Iran to develop a 10-millionyear long proxy record of Arabian climate. We identify transient periods of Arabian hyperaridity centred 8.75, 7.78, 7.50 and 6.25 million years ago, out of-phase with Northern African aridity. We propose that this relationship promoted unidirectional mammalian dispersals into Africa. This was followed by a sustained hyperarid period between 5.6 and 3.3 million years ago which impeded dispersals and allowed African mammalian faunas to endemically diversify into present-day clades. After this, the mid-Piacenzian warmth
enabled bi-directional fauna exchange between Africa and Eurasia, which continued during the Pleistocene.
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- Journal article: 10.1038/s43247-021-00158-y (DOI)