title: Menispermaceae and the diversification of tropical rainforests near the Cretaceous-Paleogene boundary.
abstract: • Modern tropical rainforests have the highest biodiversity of terrestrial biomes and are restricted to three low-latitude areas. However, the actual timeframe during which tropical rainforests began to appear on a global scale has been intensely disputed. Here, we used the moonseed family (Menispermaceae), an important physiognomic and structural component of tropical rainforests on a worldwide basis, to obtain new insights into the diversification of this biome. • We integrated phylogenetic, biogeographic and molecular dating methods to analyse temporal and spatial patterns of global diversification in Menispermaceae. • Importantly, a burst of moonseed diversification occurred in a narrow window of time, which coincides with the Cretaceous-Paleogene (K-Pg) boundary. Our data also suggest multiple independent migrations from a putative ancestral area of Indo-Malay into other tropical regions. • Our data for Menispermaceae suggest that modern tropical rainforests may have appeared almost synchronously throughout the three major tropical land areas close to, or immediately following, the K-Pg mass extinction.
authors.affiliation: State Key Laboratory of Systematic and Evolutionary Botany, Institute of Botany, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100093, China.
authors.forename: Wei
authors.initials: W
authors.lastname: Wang
authors.affiliation: Missouri Botanical Garden, PO Box 299, St. Louis, MO 63166-0299, USA.
authors.forename: Rosa Del C
authors.initials: RDC
authors.lastname: Ortiz
authors.affiliation: Key Laboratory of Tropical Forest Ecology, Xishuangbanna Tropical Botanical Garden, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Menglun 666303, China.
authors.forename: Frédéric M B
authors.initials: FMB
authors.lastname: Jacques
authors.affiliation: State Key Laboratory of Systematic and Evolutionary Botany, Institute of Botany, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100093, China.
authors.forename: Xiao-Guo
authors.initials: XG
authors.lastname: Xiang
authors.affiliation: State Key Laboratory of Systematic and Evolutionary Botany, Institute of Botany, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100093, China.
authors.forename: Hong-Lei
authors.initials: HL
authors.lastname: Li
authors.affiliation: State Key Laboratory of Systematic and Evolutionary Botany, Institute of Botany, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100093, China.
authors.forename: Li
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Lin
authors.affiliation: State Key Laboratory of Systematic and Evolutionary Botany, Institute of Botany, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100093, China.
authors.forename: Rui-Qi
authors.initials: RQ
authors.lastname: Li
authors.affiliation: Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, University of Connecticut, Storrs, CT 06269-3043, USA.
authors.forename: Yang
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Liu
authors.affiliation: Florida Museum of Natural History, University of Florida, Gainesville, FL 32611, USA.
authors.forename: Pamela S
authors.initials: PS
authors.lastname: Soltis
authors.affiliation: Department of Biology, University of Florida, Gainesville, FL 32611, USA.
authors.forename: Douglas E
authors.initials: DE
authors.lastname: Soltis
authors.affiliation: State Key Laboratory of Systematic and Evolutionary Botany, Institute of Botany, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100093, China.
authors.forename: Zhi-Duan
authors.initials: ZD
authors.lastname: Chen
mesh_terms: D001499:Bayes Theorem; D044822:Biodiversity; D016013:Likelihood Functions; D029583:Menispermaceae / Q000235:genetics / Q000502:physiology*; D010802:Phylogeny; D011891:Rain; D013997:Time Factors; D014197:Trees / Q000502:physiology*; D014329:Tropical Climate