Evolutionary biogeography and the regionalization of the neotropics: A perspective from mammals

Abstract

Evolutionary biogeography aims to discover biogeographic patterns exhibited by plant and animal taxa and to assess the historical changes that have shaped the assembly of biotas. One of these biotas is found in the Neotropical region, which has been described, delimited and regionalized by several authors since the 19th century. Important contributions have been made by several mammalogists, who have identified geographic distributional patterns of mammals of the Americas and have contributed to different schemes of regionalization. Biogeographic regionalizations are based on the identification of endemic or characteristic taxa, constituting natural biotic hierarchies that synthesize the evolutionary/ecological history of the areas. According to the most recent biogeographic regionalization, the Neotropical region is composed by three subregions, two transition zones, seven dominions and 54 provinces.