Southern Landmasses Research Articles

Taxonomy, morphology, masticatory function and phylogeny of heterodontosaurid dinosaurs

Heterodontosaurids comprise an important early radiation of small-bodied herbivores that persisted for approximately 100 My from Late Triassic to Early Cretaceous time. Review of available fossils unequivocally establishes Echinodon as a very small-bodied, late-surviving northern heterodontosaurid similar to the other northern genera Fruitadens and Tianyulong. Tianyulong from northern China has unusual skeletal proportions, including a relatively large skull, short forelimb, and long manual digit II. The southern African heterodontosaurid genus Lycorhinus is established as valid, and a new taxon from the same formation is named Pegomastax africanus gen. n., sp. n. Tooth replacement and tooth-to-tooth wear is more common than previously thought among heterodontosaurids, and in Heterodontosaurus the angle of tooth-to-tooth shear is shown to increase markedly during maturation. Long-axis rotation of the lower jaw during occlusion is identified here as the most likely functional mechanism underlying marked tooth wear in mature specimens of Heterodontosaurus. Extensive tooth wear and other evidence suggests that all heterodontosaurids were predominantly or exclusively herbivores. Basal genera such as Echinodon, Fruitadens and Tianyulong with primitive, subtriangular crowns currently are known only from northern landmasses. All other genera except the enigmatic Pisanosaurus have deeper crown proportions and currently are known only from southern landmasses.

Taxonomy, morphology, masticatory function and phylogeny of heterodontosaurid dinosaurs

Heterodontosaurids comprise an important early radiation of small-bodied herbivores that persisted for approximately 100 My from Late Triassic to Early Cretaceous time. Review of available fossils unequivocally establishes Echinodon as a very small-bodied, late-surviving northern heterodontosaurid similar to the other northern genera Fruitadens and Tianyulong. Tianyulong from northern China has unusual skeletal proportions, including a relatively large skull, short forelimb, and long manual digit II. The southern African heterodontosaurid genus Lycorhinus is established as valid, and a new taxon from the same formation is named Pegomastax africanus gen. n., sp. n. Tooth replacement and tooth-to-tooth wear is more common than previously thought among heterodontosaurids, and in Heterodontosaurus the angle of tooth-to-tooth shear is shown to increase markedly during maturation. Long-axis rotation of the lower jaw during occlusion is identified here as the most likely functional mechanism underlying marked tooth wear in mature specimens of Heterodontosaurus. Extensive tooth wear and other evidence suggests that all heterodontosaurids were predominantly or exclusively herbivores. Basal genera such as Echinodon, Fruitadens and Tianyulong with primitive, subtriangular crowns currently are known only from northern landmasses. All other genera except the enigmatic Pisanosaurus have deeper crown proportions and currently are known only from southern landmasses.

Ratite Nonmonophyly: Independent Evidence from 40 Novel Loci

Large-scale multilocus studies have become common in molecular phylogenetics, but the best way to interpret these studies when their results strongly conflict with prior information about phylogeny remains unclear. An example of such a conflict is provided by the ratites (the large flightless birds of southern land masses, including ostriches, emus, and rheas). Ratite monophyly is strongly supported by both morphological data and many earlier molecular studies and is used as a textbook example of vicariance biogeography. However, recent studies have indicated that ratites are not monophyletic; instead, the volant tinamous nest inside the ratites rather than forming their sister group within the avian superorder Palaeognathae. Large-scale studies can exhibit biases that reflect a number of factors, including limitations in the fit of the evolutionary models used for analyses and problems with sequence alignment, so the unexpected conclusion that ratites are not monophyletic needs to be rigorously evaluated. A rigorous approach to testing novel hypotheses generated by large-scale studies is to collect independent evidence (i.e., excluding the loci and/or traits used to generate the hypotheses). We used 40 nuclear loci not used in previous studies that investigated the relationship among ratites and tinamous. Our results strongly support the recent molecular studies, revealing that the deepest branch within Palaeognathae separates the ostrich from other members of the clade, rather than the traditional hypothesis that separates the tinamous from the ratites. To ensure these results reflected evolutionary history, we examined potential biases in types of loci used, heterotachy, alignment biases, and discordance between gene trees and the species tree. All analyses consistently supported nonmonophyly of the ratites and no confounding biases were identified. This confirmation that ratites are not monophyletic using independent evidence will hopefully stimulate further comparative research on paleognath development and genetics that might reveal the basis of the morphological convergence in these large, flightless birds.

A New Global Palaeobiogeographical Model for the Late Mesozoic and Early Tertiary

Late Mesozoic palaeobiogeography has been characterized by a distinction between the northern territories of Laurasia and the southern landmasses of Gondwana. The repeated discovery of Gondwanan lineages in Laurasia has led to the proposal of alternative scenarios to explain these anomalous occurrences. A new biogeographical model for late Mesozoic terrestrial ecosystems is here proposed in which Europe and "Gondwanan" territories possessed a common Eurogondwanan fauna during the earliest Cretaceous. Subsequently, following the Hauterivian, the European territories severed from Africa and then connected to Asiamerica resulting in a faunal interchange. This model explains the presence of Gondwanan taxa in Laurasia and the absence of Laurasian forms in the southern territories during the Cretaceous. In order to test this new palaeobiogeographical model, tree reconciliation analyses (TRAs) were performed based on biogeographical signals provided by a supertree of late Mesozoic archosaurs. The TRAs found significant evidence for the presence of an earliest Cretaceous Eurogondwanan fauna followed by a relatively short-term Gondwana-Laurasia dichotomy. The analysis recovered evidence for a biogeographical reconnection of the European territories with Africa and South America-Antarctica during the Campanian to Maastrichtian time-slice. This biogeographical scenario appears to continue through the early Tertiary and sheds light on the trans-Atlantic disjunct distributions of several extant plant and animal groups.

Phylogeographically concordant chloroplast DNA divergence in sympatric Nothofagus s.s. How deep can it be?

• Here, we performed phylogenetic analyses and estimated the divergence times on mostly sympatric populations of five species within subgenus Nothofagus. We aimed to investigate whether phylogenetic relationships by nuclear internal transcribed spacer (ITS) and phylogeographic patterns by chloroplast DNA (cpDNA) mirror an ancient evolutionary history that was not erased by glacial eras. Extant species are restricted to Patagonia and share a pollen type that was formerly widespread in all southern land masses. Weak reproductive barriers exist among them. • Fifteen cpDNA haplotypes resulted from the analysis of three noncoding regions on 330 individuals with a total alignment of 1794 bp. Nuclear ITS data consisted of 822 bp. We found a deep cpDNA divergence dated 32 Ma at mid-latitudes of Patagonia that predates the phylogenetic divergence of extant taxa. Other more recent breaks by cpDNA occurred towards the north. • Complex paleogeographic features explain the genetic discontinuities. Long-lasting paleobasins and marine ingressions have impeded transoceanic dispersal during range expansion towards lower latitudes under cooler trends since the Oligocene. • Cycles of hybridization-introgression among extant and extinct taxa have resulted in widespread chloroplast capture events. Our data suggest that Nothofagus biogeography will be resolved only if thorough phylogeographic analyses and molecular dating methods are applied using distinct genetic markers.

Gondwanan radiation of the Southern Hemisphere crayfishes (Decapoda: Parastacidae): evidence from fossils and molecules

AbstractAim The sequential break‐up of Gondwana is thought to be a dominant process in the establishment of shared biota across landmasses of the Southern Hemisphere. Yet similar distributions are shared by taxa whose radiations clearly post‐date the Gondwanan break‐up. Thus, determining the contribution of vicariance versus dispersal to seemingly Gondwanan biota is complex. The southern freshwater crayfishes (family Parastacidae) are distributed on Australia and New Guinea, South America, Madagascar and New Zealand and are unlikely to have dispersed via oceans, owing to strict freshwater limitations. We test the hypotheses that the break‐up of Gondwana has led to (1) a predominately east–west (((Australia, New Zealand: 80 Ma) Madagascar: 160–121 Ma) South America: 165–140 Ma), or (2) a southern (((Australia, South America: 52–35 Ma) New Zealand: 80 Ma) Madagascar: 160–121 Ma) pattern for parastacid crayfish. Further, we examine the evidence for a complete drowning of New Zealand and subsequent colonization by freshwater crayfish.Location Southern Hemisphere.Methods The evolutionary relationships among the 15 genera of Parastacidae were reconstructed using mitochondrial [16S, cytochrome c oxidase subunit I (COI)] and nuclear (18S, 28S) sequence data and maximum likelihood and Bayesian methods of phylogenetic reconstruction. A Bayesian (multidivtime) molecular dating method using six fossil calibrations and phylogenetic inference was used to estimate divergence time among crayfish clades on Gondwanan landmasses.Results The South American crayfish are monophyletic and a sister group to all other southern crayfish. Australian crayfish are not monophyletic, with two Tasmanian genera, Spinastacoides and Ombrastacoides, forming a clade with New Zealand and Malagasy crayfish (both monophyletic). Divergence of crayfish among southern landmasses is estimated to have occurred around the Late Jurassic to Early Cretaceous (109–178 Ma).Main conclusions The estimated phylogenetic relationships and time of divergence among the Southern Hemisphere crayfishes were consistent with an east–west pattern of Gondwanan divergence. The divergence between Australia and New Zealand (109–160 Ma) pre‐dated the rifting at around 80 Ma, suggesting that these lineages were established prior to the break‐up. Owing to the age of the New Zealand crayfish, we reject the hypothesis that there was a complete drowning of New Zealand crayfish habitat.

Phylogeny and biogeography of Hydra (Cnidaria: Hydridae) using mitochondrial and nuclear DNA sequences

The polyp hydra is ubiquitous in freshwater and is highly variable, with many species names assigned to different strains. Types of hydra do fall into four morphologically recognizable groups but many of the species determinations are confusing. To assess the diversity of hydra we collected 101 strains from six continents and built a phylogeny using three genetic markers. Each of the four well-defined groups of species represents a clade in our phylogeny. The green hydra group diverged first, followed by the braueri group and finally the sister groups vulgaris and oligactis. Each of eight species easily definable by morphological criteria represents a distinct clade in our phylogeny. Hydra of two clades, the green and the vulgaris hydra, are found on all continents (except Antarctica) and many islands, whereas hydra of the other two groups (braueri and oligactis) are restricted to the Northern Hemisphere. Our best estimate of the time of origin of hydra is about 60Ma, long after the breakage of Pangea into northern and southern landmasses. Hydra appear to have diversified in the Northern Hemisphere, and their current diversity is greatest here. Two species were then able to disperse to the Southern Hemisphere, perhaps due to their thermal tolerance.

Phylogenomic evidence for multiple losses of flight in ratite birds.

Ratites (ostriches, emus, rheas, cassowaries, and kiwis) are large, flightless birds that have long fascinated biologists. Their current distribution on isolated southern land masses is believed to reflect the breakup of the paleocontinent of Gondwana. The prevailing view is that ratites are monophyletic, with the flighted tinamous as their sister group, suggesting a single loss of flight in the common ancestry of ratites. However, phylogenetic analyses of 20 unlinked nuclear genes reveal a genome-wide signal that unequivocally places tinamous within ratites, making ratites polyphyletic and suggesting multiple losses of flight. Phenomena that can mislead phylogenetic analyses, including long branch attraction, base compositional bias, discordance between gene trees and species trees, and sequence alignment errors, have been eliminated as explanations for this result. The most plausible hypothesis requires at least three losses of flight and explains the many morphological and behavioral similarities among ratites by parallel or convergent evolution. Finally, this phylogeny demands fundamental reconsideration of proposals that relate ratite evolution to continental drift.

Origin of tropical American burrowing reptiles by transatlantic rafting

Populations of terrestrial or freshwater taxa that are separated by oceans can be explained by either oceanic dispersal or fragmentation of a previously contiguous land mass. Amphisbaenians, the worm lizards (approx. 165 species), are small squamate reptiles that are uniquely adapted to a burrowing lifestyle and inhabit Africa, South America, Caribbean Islands, North America, Europe and the Middle East. All but a few species are limbless and they rarely leave their subterranean burrows. Given their peculiar habits, the distribution of amphisbaenians has been assumed to be primarily the result of two land-mass fragmentation events: the split of the supercontinent Pangaea starting 200 Myr ago, separating species on the northern land mass (Laurasia) from those on the southern land mass (Gondwana), and the split of South America from Africa 100 Myr ago. Here we show with molecular evidence that oceanic dispersal-on floating islands-played a more prominent role, and that amphisbaenians crossed the Atlantic Ocean in the Eocene (40 Myr ago) resulting in a tropical American radiation representing one-half of all known amphisbaenian species. Until now, only four or five transatlantic dispersal events were known in terrestrial vertebrates. Significantly, this is the first such dispersal event to involve a group that burrows, an unexpected lifestyle for an oceanic disperser.

Cretaceous biota of the Triângulo Mineiro region (Brazil): A review of recent finds

The Bauru Group (Adamantina, Uberaba, and Marilia Formations) crop out in the Triângulo Mineiro region, Minas Gerais State, Brazil, and yield a rich continental biota. Invertebrate and vertebrate taxa from underlying and overlying strata, as well as biostratigraphical correlations with other fossil sites in Argentina, suggest an Upper Cretaceous age for this biota. The diversity of the fossil assemblage recorded in these formations is summarized here and includes: frogs, lizards, crocodiles, titanosaurs, abelisaurid and carcharodontosaurid dinosaurs. This fossil assemblage provides important clues to understand faunas from other southern landmasses, particularly those from the Cretaceous of the African continent.

Gondwanide continental collision and the origin of Patagonia

A review of the post-Cambrian igneous, structural and metamorphic history of Patagonia, largely revealed by a five-year programme of U–Pb zircon dating (32 samples), geochemical and isotope analysis, results in a new Late Palaeozoic collision model as the probable cause of the Gondwanide fold belts of South America and South Africa. In the northeastern part of the North Patagonian Massif, Cambro-Ordovician metasediments with a Gondwana provenance are intruded by Mid Ordovician granites analogous to those of the Famatinian arc of NW Argentina; this area is interpreted as Gondwana continental crust at least from Devonian times, probably underlain by Neoproterozoic crystalline basement affected by both Pampean and Famatinian events, with a Cambrian rifting episode previously identified in the basement of the Sierra de la Ventana. In the Devonian (following collision of the Argentine Precordillera terrane to the north), the site of magmatism jumped to the western and southwestern margins of the North Patagonian Massif, although as yet the tectonics of this magmatic event are poorly constrained. This was followed by Early Carboniferous I-type granites representing a subduction-related magmatic are and Mid Carboniferous S-type granites representing crustal anatexis. The disposition of these rocks implies that the North Patagonian Massif was in the upper plate, with northeasterly subduction beneath Gondwana prior to the collision of a southern landmass represented by the Deseado Massif and its probable extension in southeastern Patagonia. This ‘Deseado terrane’ may have originally rifted off from a similar position during the Cambrian episode. Intense metamorphism and granite emplacement in the upper plate continued into the Early Permian. Known aspects of Late Palaeozoic sedimentation, metamorphism, and deformation in the Sierra de la Ventana and adjacent Cape Fold Belt of South Africa are encompassed within this model. It is also compatible with modern geophysical and palaeomagnetic data that do not support previous hypotheses of southward-directed subduction and collision along the northern limit of Patagonia. Subsequent Permian break-off of the subducted plate, perhaps with delamination of the lower part of the upper plate, allowed access of heat to the overlying Gondwana margin and resulted in voluminous and widespread silicic plutonism and volcanism throughout Permian and into Triassic times. Thus the new model addresses and attempts to explain three long-standing geological enigmas—the origin of the Gondwanide fold belts, the origin of Patagonia, and the cause of widespread Permian silicic magmatism (Choiyoi province) in southern South America. Differing significantly from previous models, it has new implications for the crustal structure, mineral resources, and plant and animal distribution in this part of Gondwana, since the southern landmass would have had an independent evolution throughout the Early Palaeozoic.

Goodbye Gondwana? New Zealand Biogeography, Geology, and the Problem of Circularity

is the perceived role of plate tectonics in mediating the widespread Gondwanan distribution of taxa currently limited to southern landmasses such as Africa, South America, Australia, New Zealand, and New Caledonia. Following the general acceptance of plate tectonic theory, vicariance biogeographers (e.g. Rosen, 1978; Nelson and Ladiges, 2001; Humphries, 2000; Ebach et al, 2003) have explained the wide southern distributions of ratite birds, freshwater fishes, and southern beeches, for example, as essentially passive phenomena shaped by geology. Vicariant biogeographic inferences should ideally be based on a combination of biological and geological information. When such distinct fields of scientific re

Comparative winter frost resistance of plant species from southern Africa, Australia, New Zealand, and South America grown in a common environment (Dunedin, New Zealand)

The foliar frost resistance of plant species from the Southern Hemisphere is generally less than that of their northern equivalents, but are there differences between species from different southern land masses? Frost damage was determined visually and from measures of chlorophyll fluorescence: the two methods gave similar estimates of frost resistance. Amajority of species had frost resistances that were in accord with frost hardiness ratings derived from USDA climate zones, but species assigned to warmer climate zones were often more frost resistant than expected. USDA climate zones, which are based on continental climates in the Northern Hemisphere, may need re‐evaluation for the oceanic climates in the Southern Hemisphere. The frost resistance of various plant species from New Zealand, Australia, South America, and South Africa was determined in a common environment in the Dunedin Botanic Garden and its environs during the Dunedin winter (June‐July 2005). South American species were the most frost resistant, followed by New Zealand, Australian, and South African species, which were generally the least resistant. Broadleaved trees and shrubs, and conifers, showed a similar pattern of resistance with respect to countries. These patterns were less consistent for families and genera and it was concluded that the climate of origin rather than taxonomic affinity determined the winter frost resistance of species sampled in the Botanic Gardens.

The earliest dromaeosaurid theropod from South America

The evolutionary history of Maniraptora, the clade of carnivorous dinosaurs that includes birds and the sickle-clawed Dromaeosauridae, has hitherto been largely restricted to Late Jurassic and Cretaceous deposits on northern continents. The stunning Early Cretaceous diversity of maniraptorans from Liaoning, China, coupled with a longevity implied by derived Late Jurassic forms such as Archaeopteryx, pushes the origins of maniraptoran lineages back to Pangaean times and engenders the possibility that such lineages existed in Gondwana. A few intriguing, but incomplete, maniraptoran specimens have been reported from South America, Africa and Madagascar. Their affinities remain contested, however, and they have been interpreted as biogeographic anomalies relative to other faunal components of these land-masses. Here we describe a near-complete, small dromaeosaurid that is both the most complete and the earliest member of the Maniraptora from South America, and which provides new evidence for a unique Gondwanan lineage of Dromaeosauridae with an origin predating the separation between northern and southern landmasses.

Frugivore gape size and the evolution of fruit size and shape in southern hemisphere floras

Abstract The present study uses differences among frugivore faunas of the southern hemisphere landmasses to test whether frugivore characteristics have influenced the evolution of fruit traits. Strong floristic similarities exist among southern landmasses; for example, 75% of New Zealand vascular plant genera also have species in Australia. However, plants in Australia and South America have evolved in the presence of a range of mammalian frugivores, whereas those in New Zealand, New Caledonia and the Pacific Islands have not. In addition, the avian frugivores in New Zealand and New Caledonia are generally smaller than those of Australia. If frugivore characteristics have influenced the evolution of fruit traits, predictable differences should exist between southern hemisphere fruits, particularly fruit size and shape. Fruit dimensions were measured for 77 New Zealand species and 31 Australian species in trans‐Tasman genera. New Zealand fruits became significantly more ellipsoid in shape with increasing size. This is consistent with frugivore gape size imposing a selective pressure on fruit ingestability. This result is not a product of phylogenetic correlates, as fruit length and width scaled isometrically for Australian species in genera shared with New Zealand. Within‐genus contrasts between New Zealand and Australian species in 20 trans‐Tasman genera showed that New Zealand species have significantly smaller fruits than their Australian counterparts. Within‐genus contrasts between New Zealand and South American species in nine genera gave the same result; New Zealand species had significantly smaller fruits than their South American counterparts. No difference was found in fruit size or shape between New Zealand and New Caledonia congeneric species from 12 genera. These results are consistent with the broad characteristics of the frugivore assemblage influencing the evolution of fruit size and shape in related species. The smaller‐sized New Zealand frugivore assemblage has apparently influenced the evolution of fruit size of colonizing taxa sometimes within a relatively short evolutionary timeframe.

Antarctic circumpolar modes in a coupled ocean?atmosphere model

Eastward-propagating patterns in anomalous potential temperature and salinity of the Southern Ocean are analyzed in the output of a 1000-year simulation of the global coupled atmosphere–ocean GCM ECHO-G. Such features can be associated with the so-called Antarctic Circumpolar Wave (ACW). It is found that time–longitude diagrams that have traditionally been used to aid the visualization of the ACW are strongly influenced by the width of the bandpass time filtering. This is due to the masking of considerable low-frequency variability that occurs over a broad range of time scales. Frequency–wavenumber analysis of the ACW shows that the eastward-propagating waves do have preferred spectral peaks, but that both the period and wavenumber change erratically when comparing different centuries throughout the simulation. The variability of the ACW on a variety of time scales from interannual to centennial suggests that the waiting time for a sufficient observational record to determine the time scale of variability of the real world ACW (and the associated decadal time scale predictability of climate for southern landmasses) will be a very long one.

Tooth row counts, vicariance, and the distribution of the sand tiger shark Carcharias taurus

Geographic variation in tooth row counts among sand tiger sharks Carcharias taurus (Chondrichthyes), from the SW Atlantic, NW Atlantic and the East China Sea is analyzed in this paper. We found significant differences between sand tigers from the SW Atlantic (Southern Hemisphere population) and each of the other two (Northern Hemisphere) regions in the number of upper lateral tooth rows, and between individuals from the SW Atlantic and the East China Sea in the total number of upper tooth rows. Sand tiger sharks from the two Northern Hemisphere populations did not differ in any of the studied variables. Our results agree with comparisons of vertebral counts between sand tiger sharks from Southern and Northern Hemispheres. Both lines of evidence suggest that Southern and Northern Hemisphere populations of C. taurus were isolated to a larger extent than populations of the Northern Hemisphere. The fossil record of the genus Carcharias begins in the Early Cretaceous and C. taurus is certainly known since the Late Miocene. During the Miocene, the Tethys Sea separating northern and southern land masses was still present and it provided a continuous temperate shallow sea that could allow dispersal of sand tiger sharks along Northern Hemisphere seas. Independent observations on the distribution and evolutionary history of the genera Myripristis, Neoniphon, Sargocentron and Aphanius, and genetic studies on the temperate shark genus Mustelus that indicate a close relationship between the Indo‐Pacific M. manazo and the Mediterranean M. asterias suggest that this hypothesis is plausible and deserves to be tested.

Dual origin of tribosphenic mammals.

Marsupials, placentals and their close therian relatives possess complex (tribosphenic) molars that are capable of versatile occlusal functions. This functional complex is widely thought to be a key to the early diversification and evolutionary success of extant therians and their close relatives (tribosphenidans). Long thought to have arisen on northern continents, tribosphenic mammals have recently been reported from southern landmasses. The great age and advanced morphology of these new mammals has led to the alternative suggestion of a Gondwanan origin for the group. Implicit in both biogeographic hypotheses is the assumption that tribosphenic molars evolved only once in mammalian evolutionary history. Phylogenetic and morphometric analyses including these newly discovered taxa suggest a different interpretation: that mammals with tribosphenic molars are not monophyletic. Tribosphenic molars evolved independently in two ancient (holotherian) mammalian groups with different geographic distributions during the Jurassic/Early Cretaceous: an australosphenidan clade endemic to Gondwanan landmasses, survived by extant monotremes; and a boreosphenidan clade of Laurasian continents, including extant marsupials, placentals and their relatives.

New Discoveries of Devonian Vertebrates from South America, and implications for Gondwana–Euramerica contact

A new fossil fish fauna from western Venezuela provides the first South American Devonian record of antiarch and phyllolepid placoderms, and sarcopterygians including lungfishes, groups widely distributed on other continents. Endemic elements in the fish fauna indicate Gondwana affinities, and the age of the phyllolepid placoderm occurrence is consistent with a model of biotic dispersal between Gondwana and Euramerica near the Frasnian–Famennian boundary. A narrow marine barrier separating northern and southern landmasses is indicated, in contrast to the wide equatorial ocean for the Late Devonian postulated from palaeomagnetic data.

Evidence for the Lower Palaeozoic age of the Tay Nappe: the timing and nature of Grampian events in the Scottish Highland sector of the Laurentian Margin

Stratigraphical and structural evidence for latest Proterozoic–Phanerozoic deposition of the Dalradian Supergroup in the Scottish Highlands sector of the Laurentian margin is incompatible with geochronological data suggesting c. 750 Ma (Knoydartian) and c. 600 Ma (Grampian) orogenesis. The age of the 590 ± 2 Ma Ben Vuirich Granite is critical to the dating of Grampian orogenesis. Fabric evidence indicates that the granite predates D2 while its relationship to D1 is unclear. In this paper the D1–D2 overprint during the evolution of the Tay Nappe, a regional Grampian structure, is examined. Documentation of the distribution, style and orientation of D1 and D2 structures from well exposed sections near the Highland Border has allowed the development of a kinematic model for the D1/D2 deformation. In this model early crustal shortening resulted in D1 upright structures that were subsequently overturned in a D2, SE‐directed shear regime associated with underthrusting of a southern landmass. The model is best explained in terms of a single continental collision event with no evidence of a time gap between D1 and D2. This analysis is consistent with pre‐regional D1 intrusion of the Ben Vuirich Granite and an Early Palaeozoic Grampian Orogeny.