Abstract
Dinosaurs dominated Mesozoic terrestrial ecosystems globally. However, whereas a pole-to-pole geographic distribution characterized ornithischians and theropods, sauropods were restricted to lower latitudes. Here, we evaluate the role of climate in shaping these biogeographic patterns through the Jurassic–Cretaceous (201–66 mya), combining dinosaur fossil occurrences, past climate data from Earth System models, and habitat suitability modeling. Results show that, uniquely among dinosaurs, sauropods occupied climatic niches characterized by high temperatures and strongly bounded by minimum cold temperatures. This constrained the distribution and dispersal pathways of sauropods to tropical areas, excluding them from latitudinal extremes, especially in the Northern Hemisphere. The greater availability of suitable habitat in the southern continents, particularly in the Late Cretaceous, might be key to explaining the high diversity of sauropods there, relative to northern landmasses. Given that ornithischians and theropods show a flattened or bimodal latitudinal biodiversity gradient, with peaks at higher latitudes, the closer correspondence of sauropods to a subtropical concentration could hint at fundamental thermophysiological differences to the other two clades.
| Original language | English |
|---|---|
| Pages (from-to) | 570-585.e3 |
| Journal | Current Biology |
| Volume | 32 |
| Issue number | 3 |
| DOIs | |
| Publication status | Published - 7 Feb 2022 |
Bibliographical note
Funding Information:A.A.C. and S.V. are funded through a European Research Council (ERC) Starting Grant under the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme (grant agreement no. 947921 , MAPAS). A.A.C. was partially funded by a Janet Watson PhD Departmental scholarship from Imperial College London . P.D.M. is supported by a Royal Society University Research Fellowship ( UF160216 ). Silhouettes in all figures are used with permission of Scott Hartman, Jack Mayer, Matt-Martyniuk, Jagged-Fang, Tasman Dixon, Pete-Buchholz, Iain Reid, and user DiBgd (modified by T. Michael Keesey) via PhyloPic ( http://phylopic.org ) under public license ( https://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/mark/1.0/ ), or CC BY 3.0 ( https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/3.0/ ). Discussion with Peter Allison and Roger Benson and comments from four anonymous reviewers greatly improved this manuscript. This is Paleobiology Database official publication number 416.
Funding Information:
A.A.C. and S.V. are funded through a European Research Council (ERC) Starting Grant under the European Union's Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme (grant agreement no. 947921, MAPAS). A.A.C. was partially funded by a Janet Watson PhD Departmental scholarship from Imperial College London. P.D.M. is supported by a Royal Society University Research Fellowship (UF160216). Silhouettes in all figures are used with permission of Scott Hartman, Jack Mayer, Matt-Martyniuk, Jagged-Fang, Tasman Dixon, Pete-Buchholz, Iain Reid, and user DiBgd (modified by T. Michael Keesey) via PhyloPic (http://phylopic.org) under public license (https://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/mark/1.0/), or CC BY 3.0 (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/3.0/). Discussion with Peter Allison and Roger Benson and comments from four anonymous reviewers greatly improved this manuscript. This is Paleobiology Database official publication number 416. A.A.C. and P.D.M. conceived and designed the research; A.A.C. P.D.M. A.F. and M.T.C. produced and collected data; A.A.C. and S.V. analyzed the data; A.A.C. produced the figures; and A.A.C. P.D.M. S.V. and M.T.C. wrote the manuscript. All authors provided critical comments on the manuscript. The authors declare no competing interests.
Publisher Copyright:
© 2021 Elsevier Inc.
Keywords
- biogeography
- Dinosauria
- macroecology
- macroevolution
- Mesozoic
- Ornithischia
- paleoclimate
- Sauropoda
- thermophysiology
- Theropoda
