The Isthmian Link, Antitropicality and American Biogeography: Distributional History of the Atherinopsinae (Pisces: Atherinidae)

• DOI: 10.2307/2413429
• Publication Date: 2006-05-10T19:43:27Z
• Authors: Brian N. White
• Keywords: 0106 biological sciences; 0301 basic medicine; 03 medical and health sciences; 01 natural sciences

The worldwide occurrence of antitropical organisms is correlated with a reorga- nization of world climate culminating in the middle Miocene. It is suggested that rising tropical temperatures in the Miocene led to a global exclusion of stenothermic taxa from low latitudes. The phylogeny and distribution of the New World silversides are congruent with this inter- pretation of antitropical origins. Evidence bearing on the relationships of the American an- chovies is consistent with this paleoclimatic hypothesis as well. Alternative hypotheses pro- moting long-distance dispersal, tropical submergence, competition and predation contribute to a fuller understanding of the mosaic nature of the global antitropical pattern (Antitropical; bipolar; vicariance biogeography; isthmian link; silversides; Atherinidae; Atherinopsinae; Men- idiinae.)