Army Ants Reveal Land Bridges Connected the Americas Millions of Years Before the Isthmus of Panama
“Recent advances in technology now allow us to apply genomic methods across the tree of life, rapidly increasing the pace of scientific discovery,” said Max Winston, Ph.D. candidate at The Field Museum and University of Chicago. “Without these tools, we would not have been able to recover the striking pattern of repeated speciation on the isthmus. Our work implies that early land connections were used to colonize Central America, but it also highlights the large role of the isthmus in generating biodiversity.”
But with so many organisms to choose from, why were army ants selected for this study? It turns out their biology makes them ideal for asking questions about land-based dispersal. For example, despite their presence throughout the tropics, they are completely absent from all the true Caribbean islands. Although this may seem unexpected, the answer lies in their wingless queens, which restrict them to exclusively colonize new territory by land. This was an important fact that enabled this study to rule out aerial and aquatic dispersal when army ant species colonized Central America millions of years ago.
“The emergence of Panama is arguably one of the most significant events in the recent geological history of the Americas,” said Field Museum Curator Dr. Corrie Moreau. “Not only does this research inform us about army ant evolution it is also a significant step forward in helping biologists understand how geological events shaped the biodiversity we see today.”
Contacts and sources:
Matthew Northey
Source: http://www.ineffableisland.com/2016/10/army-ants-reveal-land-bridges-connected.html
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