Amazonia Through Time: Andean Uplift, Climate Change, Landscape Evolution, and Biodiversity

The Making of Amazonian Diversity

The biodiversity of the Amazon Basin is legendary, but the processes by which it has been generated have been debated. In the late 20th century the prevalent view was that the engine of diversity was repeated contraction and expansion of forest refugia during the past 3 million years or so. Hoorn et al. (p. 927 ) analyze findings from a diverse range of disciplines, including molecular phylogeny, ecology, sedimentology, structural geology, and palaeontology, to offer an overview of the entire history of this region during the Cenozoic era (66 million years ago). The uplift of the Andes was a pivotal event in the evolution of Amazonian landscapes because it continually altered river drainage patterns, which in turn put a variety of pressures on organisms to adapt to changing conditions in a multiplicity of ways. Hence, the diversity of the modern biota of the Amazon has more ancient origins than previously thought.