title: Biotic interchange between the Indian subcontinent and mainland Asia through time.
abstract: Biotic interchange after the connection of previously independently evolving floras and faunas is thought to be one of the key factors that shaped global biodiversity as we see it today. However, it was not known how biotic interchange develops over longer time periods of several million years following the secondary contact of different biotas. Here we present a novel method to investigate the temporal dynamics of biotic interchange based on a phylogeographical meta-analysis by calculating the maximal number of observed dispersal events per million years given the temporal uncertainty of the underlying time-calibrated phylogenies. We show that biotic influx from mainland Asia onto the Indian subcontinent after Eocene continental collision was not a uniform process, but was subject to periods of acceleration, stagnancy and decrease. We discuss potential palaeoenvironmental causes for this fluctuation.
authors.affiliation: Chengdu Institute of Biology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Chengdu 610041, China.|Department of Ecology and Evolution, J. W. Goethe University, Max-von-Laue-Strasse 13, 60438 Frankfurt am Main, Germany.
authors.forename: Sebastian
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Klaus
authors.affiliation: Palynova Ltd, 1 Mow Fen Road, Littleport, Cambs CB6 1PY, UK.|Earth Sciences Department, Royal Holloway, University of London, Egham, Surrey TW20 0EX, UK.
authors.forename: Robert J
authors.initials: RJ
authors.lastname: Morley
authors.affiliation: College of Animal Science and Technology, Northwest A&F University, Yangling 712100, China.
authors.forename: Martin
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Plath
authors.affiliation: State Key Laboratory of Genetic Resources and Evolution, Kunming Institute of Zoology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Kunming 650223, China.
authors.forename: Ya-Ping
authors.initials: YP
authors.lastname: Zhang
authors.affiliation: Chengdu Institute of Biology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Chengdu 610041, China.
authors.forename: Jia-Tang
authors.initials: JT
authors.lastname: Li
mesh_terms: D001208:Asia; D058448:Biota; D005580:Fossils; D007194:India; D010802:Phylogeny; D013997:Time Factors