Index Catalog // Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew research repository

2020

Journal article

The Global Museum: natural history collections and the future of evolutionary science and public education

Natural history museums are unique spaces for interdisciplinary research and educational innovation. Through extensive exhibits and public programming and by hosting rich communities of amateurs, students, and researchers at all stages of their careers, they can provide a place-based window to focus on integration of science and discovery, as well...

Bakker, Freek T. ; Antonelli, Alexandre ; Clarke, Julia A. ; Cook, Joseph A. ; Edwards, Scott V. …

place-based, innovation incubator, field education, global museum, natural history, specimens, transcriptomics, epigenomics, and collections

2020

Journal article

Brain expansion in early hominins predicts carnivore extinctions in East Africa

While the anthropogenic impact on ecosystems today is evident, it remains unclear if the detrimental effect of hominins on co‐occurring biodiversity is a recent phenomenon or has also been the pattern for earlier hominin species. We test this using the East African carnivore fossil record. We analyse the diversity of...

Faurby, Søren ; Silvestro, Daniele ; Werdelin, Lars ; Antonelli, Alexandre

2020

Journal article

Endemism patterns are scale dependent

Areas of endemism are important in biogeography because they capture facets of biodiversity not represented elsewhere. However, the scales at which they are relevant to research and conservation are poorly analysed. Here, we calculate weighted endemism (WE) and phylogenetic endemism (PE) separately for all birds and amphibians across the globe....

Daru, Barnabas H. ; Farooq, Harith ; Antonelli, Alexandre ; Faurby, Søren

biogeography, evolutionary ecology, and conservation biology

2020

Book chapter

On the Young Savannas in the Land of Ancient Forests

Covering ancient geomorphological landscapes, and surrounded by some of the most diverse forests on Earth, the Neotropical savannas were once perceived by naturalists as ancient environments. However, current evidence suggests that tropical forests have existed in the Neotropics since the Paleocene, whereas most plant lineages present in South American savannas...

Azevedo, Josué A. R. ; Collevatti, Rosane G. ; Jaramillo, Carlos A. ; Strömberg, Caroline A. E. ; Guedes, Thaís B. …

Cerrado, Molecular divergence times, Phytoliths, C4 grasses, Biome origin, Neotropical region, and Biome assembly

2020

Journal article

Disproportionate extinction of South American mammals drove the asymmetry of the Great American Biotic Interchange.

The interchange between the previously disconnected faunas of North and South America was a massive experiment in biological invasion. A major gap in our understanding of this invasion is why there was a drastic increase in the proportion of mammals of North American origin found in South America. Four nonmutually...