@article{gledocs_11858_11113,
author = {Böhme, Madelaine and Spassov, Nikolai and Majidifard, Mahmoud Reza and Gärtner, Andreas and Kirscher, Uwe and Marks, Michael and Dietzel, Christian and Uhlig, Gregor and El Atfy, Haytham and Begun, David R. and Winklhofer, Michael},
title = {Neogene hyperaridity in Arabia drove the directions of mammalian dispersal between Africa and Eurasia},
year = {2021-05-18},
volume = {2},
number = {1},
publisher = {Nature Publishing Group UK},
publisher = {},

abstract = {The evolution of the present-day African savannah fauna has been substantially influenced by the dispersal of Eurasian ancestors into Africa. The ancestors evolved endemically, together with the autochthonous taxa, into extant Afrotropical clades during the last 5 million years. However, it is unclear why Eurasian ancestors moved into Africa. Here we use sedimentological observations and soluble salt geochemical analyses of samples from a sedimentary sequence in Western Iran to develop a 10-million-year long proxy record of Arabian climate. We identify transient periods of Arabian hyperaridity centred 8.75, 7.78, 7.50 and 6.25 million years ago, out-of-phase with Northern African aridity. We propose that this relationship promoted unidirectional mammalian dispersals into Africa. This was followed by a sustained hyperarid period between 5.6 and 3.3 million years ago which impeded dispersals and allowed African mammalian faunas to endemically diversify into present-day clades. After this, the mid-Piacenzian warmth enabled bi-directional fauna exchange between Africa and Eurasia, which continued during the Pleistocene.},
note = { \url {http://resolver.sub.uni-goettingen.de/purl?gldocs-11858/11113}},
}