[EN] Drivers of phylogenetic structure in Amazon freshwater fish assemblages

13 January 2022

In this paper, published in Journal of Biogeography, using the AmazonFish database and a global molecular phylogeny of ray-finned fishes, we evaluated the respective roles of historical and contemporary processes in generating and maintaining fish assemblage phylodiversity patterns among 97 sub-drainages covering the
Amazon River basin. Phylogenetic diversity showed a highly non-random spatial distribution across the Amazon basin with a significant West-East decline in subdrainage assemblages phylogenetic clustering. The Western Amazon can be seen as an evolutionary “cradle” of biodiversity for freshwater fishes.
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