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Why the Amazon rainforest is so rich in species

the Pleistocene ice ages trapped water near the poles, leading to reduced sea levels and supposedly to periods of profound drought in the tropics generally, and in the Amazon basin particularly. Forty years ago, evolutionary biologists proposed that such periods of drought led to rainforest refuges in which many new species of birds, butterflies, and plants arose.

Recent geological work, however, has failed to find much evidence of such forest refuges in the Amazon basin, and the Pleistocene refuge theory is now under question.

He said: "Although I do not believe that ice ages had much to do with the rapid evolution of species in the Amazon basin, the difference in numbers of species between the temperate zone and tropical South America can be explained by mass extinctions caused by the glaciations. Most species living in North America and Europe are relatively recent arrivals because the original inhabitants were wiped out by those ice ages. They haven't had time to evolve into multiple species yet, whereas in the tropics the climate changes were less severe and so older species survived, and rapidly evolving groups were able to diversify without interruption."

Mallet's team is now investigating particular groups of species to home in on the exact reason why some species evolve so rapidly, while others in the same rainforest do not split into new species for tens of millions of years.


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Source:University College London


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