Accounting for extinction dynamics unifies the geological and biological histories of Indo-Australian Archipelago.

Abstract

Biogeographical reconstructions of the Indo-Australian Archipelago (IAA) have suggested a recent spread across the Sunda and Sahul shelves of lineages with diverse origins, which appears to be congruent with a geological history of recent tectonic uplift in the region. However, this scenario is challenged by new geological evidence suggesting that the Sunda shelf was never submerged prior to the Pliocene, casting doubt on the interpretation of recent uplift and the correspondence of evidence from biogeography and geology. A mismatch between geological and biogeographical data may occur if analyses ignore the dynamics of extinct lineages, because this may add uncertainty to the timing and origin of clades in biogeographical reconstructions. We revisit the historical biogeography of multiple IAA taxa and explicitly allow for the possibility of lineage extinction. In contrast to models assuming zero extinction, we find that all of these clades, including plants, invertebrates and vertebrates, have a common and widespread geographic origin, and each has spread and colonized the region much earlier than previously thought. The results for the eight clades re-examined in this article suggest that they diversified and spread during the early Eocene, which helps to unify the geological and biological histories of IAA.