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PNAS | June 11, 2002 | vol. 99 | no. 12 | 7841-7843
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Geology / Evolution
 Latitudinal difference in biodiversity caused by higher tropical rate of increase

Martin A. Buzas*,dagger , Laurel S. CollinsDagger , and Stephen J. Culver§

* Department of Paleobiology, Smithsonian Institution, Washington, DC 20560-0121; Dagger  Departments of Earth Sciences and Biological Sciences, Florida International University, Miami, FL 33199; and § Department of Geology, East Carolina University, Greenville, NC 27858

Communicated by W. A. Berggren, Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution, Woods Hole, MA, April 23, 2002 (received for review October 23, 2001)

Tropical diversity has generally exceeded temperate diversity in the present and at points in the past, but whether measured differences have remained relatively constant through time has been unknown. Here we examine tropical vs. temperate diversities from the Neogene to Recent using the within-habitat diversity measure Fisher's alpha of Cenozoic benthic foraminifera from the temperate Central Atlantic Coastal Plain and the tropical Central American Isthmus. During the Neogene, the mean value of alpha at temperate latitudes increased 1.4 times or 40%, whereas in the tropics it increased 2.1 times or 106%. Thus, while both areas exhibit an increase of diversity with time, past differences in the rate of increase have generated a more pronounced gradient today (164%) than existed in the Miocene (80%). These data disagree with the suggestion that the world reached an equilibrium number of species during the Paleozoic and demonstrate the need to consider both temperate and tropical components in global diversity assessments.

dagger To whom reprint requests should be addressed. E-mail: Buzas.Marty{at}nmnh.si.edu.

www.pnas.org/cgi/doi/10.1073/pnas.122241499
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