Age-related trends in niche position and specialization in Neotropical vertebrates Carlos Calderón del Cid, Fabricio Villalobos, Ricardo Dobrovolski, Bruno Vilela Ecography, 2026 Species' niche positions and breadths within a region's environmental space, measured through ecological niche factor analysis (ENFA) as marginality and specialization, can reflect evolutionary constraints related to lineage age. The ‘internal incumbency' hypothesis predicts that older species, due to competitive preemption, occupy more central niche positions than younger ones. In addition, regarding specialization, there are two contrasting predictions: the ‘time‐and‐specialization' hypothesis posits that older species are more specialized given that they had more time to adapt to an environment, whereas the ‘resource‐use' hypothesis proposes that younger species are more specialized due to occupying narrower ecological niches, which may drive higher speciation and extinction rates. This study explores the relationship between species age and their climatic niche position and specialization among Neotropical terrestrial vertebrates. Using ENFA, we estimated the marginality (niche position) and specialization (niche breadth) of 1175 mammals, 3001 birds, 1826 reptiles and 1435 amphibians across the Neotropical biomes occupied by each species. Phylogenetic generalized least squares (PGLS) models were used to analyze the relationships between species age, marginality, and specialization across vertebrate classes. Although regression coefficients were predominantly negative, suggesting that older species tend to occupy more central niche positions and exhibit lower specialization, the explanatory power of the models was extremely low. Taken together, the consistently negligible variance explained across taxa and biomes indicates that species age is not a general driver of niche position and specialization, contrary to the expectations articulated in our hypotheses.
Repeatome evolution across space and time: Unravelling repeats dynamics in the plant genus Erythrostemon Klotzsch (Leguminosae Juss) Natália Castro, Bruno Vilela, Yennifer Mata‐Sucre, André Marques, Edeline Gagnon, et al. Molecular Ecology, 2025 Fluctuations in genomic repetitive fractions (repeatome) are known to impact several facets of evolution, such as ecological adaptation and speciation processes. Therefore, investigating the divergence of repetitive elements can provide insights into an important evolutionary force. However, it is not clear how the different repetitive element clades are impacted by the different factors such as ecological changes and/or phylogeny. To discuss this, we used the Neotropical legume genus Erythrostemon (Caesalpinioideae) as a model, given its ancient origin (~33 Mya), lineage‐specific niche conservatism, macroecological heterogeneity, and disjunct distribution in Meso‐ and South American (MA and SA respectively) lineages. We performed a comparative repeatomic analysis of 18 Erythrostemon species to test the impact of environmental variables over repeats diversification. Overall, repeatome composition was diverse, with high abundances of satDNAs and Ty3/gypsy‐Tekay transposable elements, predominantly in the MA and SA lineages respectively. However, unexpected repeatome profiles unrelated to the phylogeny/biogeography were found in a few MA ( E. coccineus , E. pannosus and E. placidus ) and SA ( E. calycinus ) species, related to reticulate evolution and incongruence between nuclear and plastid topology, suggesting ancient hybridizations. The plesiomorphic Tekay and satDNA pattern was altered in the MA‐sensu stricto subclade with a striking genomic differentiation (expansion of satDNA and retraction of Tekay) associated with the colonization of a new environment in Central America around 20 Mya. Our data reveal that the current species‐specific Tekay pool was the result of two bursts of amplification probably in the Miocene, with distinct patterns for the MA and SA repeatomes. This suggests a strong role of the Tekay elements as modulators of the genome–environment interaction in Erythrostemon , providing macroevolutionary insights about mechanisms of repeatome differentiation and plant diversification across space and time.
Assessing the evolutionary distinctiveness of a highly threatened plant group: The urgency to preserve a unique lineage of evolution in Brazil Najla Bastos Scheidegger, Raquel C. Pizzardo, Bruno Vilela, Thuane Bochorny, Juliana Gastaldello Rando Plants People Planet, 2025 Societal Impact StatementBrazil's diverse flora is under several threats, with many unique lineages facing extinction, particularly in biodiverse regions like the Cerrado and campo rupestre. This study sheds light on the conservation needs of Cambessedesia (Melastomataceae), an endemic genus with 95% of its species endangered, using an approach to rank and prioritise species based on evolutionary distinctiveness and threat levels. By highlighting regions most affected by habitat loss and agricultural expansion, especially in the Cerrado and in the campo rupestre, this work aims to guide policies and conservation actions that protect biodiversity and evolutionary heritage, helping to prevent irreversible loss of natural history.Summary Brazil hosts the world's most diverse flora, yet this richness faces numerous threats, risking the loss of unique evolutionary history. Incomplete assessments hinder the understanding of the true extent of risk, particularly for the Cerrado and campo rupestre ecosystems ‐ hotspots of angiosperm richness and endemism, now experiencing severe habitat loss. This study examines the conservation status and evolutionary distinctiveness of Cambessedesia (Melastomataceae), with 24 endemic species, integrating data on land use and cover change. We leverage virtual herbarium specimens to assess each species' conservation status according to IUCN criteria. We analysed the loss of natural vegetation within each species' Extent of Occurrence over a 10‐year period. Then, we calculated the Evolutionary Distinct and Globally Endangered (EDGE) scores to prioritise species that are both highly threatened and evolutionarily distinct. Species distribution models were created and integrated with EDGE scores to generate species richness and diversity maps. Cambessedesia is a highly threatened genus, with 95% of species in threatened categories. Consequently, the EDGE and EDGE2 scores provide valuable metrics for ranking conservation priorities. Two areas stand out for their significant vegetation loss, both linked to land‐use changes driven by agriculture, one of which is currently the country's main agricultural frontier. Diversity maps highlight hotspots containing species with significant evolutionary history. These findings raise awareness of the uniqueness of these species and guide future conservation efforts. Urgent policies are needed to protect these evolutionarily unique lineages, especially in Cerrado and campo rupestre, where habitat loss and limited protected areas exacerbate extinction risks.
expowo: An R package for mining global plant diversity and distribution data Débora C. Zuanny, Bruno Vilela, Peter W. Moonlight, Tiina E. Särkinen, Domingos Cardoso Applications in Plant Sciences, 2024 PremiseData on plant distribution and diversity from natural history collections and taxonomic databases are increasingly becoming available online as exemplified by the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew's Plants of the World Online (POWO) database. This growing accumulation of biodiversity information requires an advance in bioinformatic tools for accessing and processing the massive data for use in downstream science. We present herein expowo, an open‐source package that facilitates extracting and using botanical data from POWO.Methods and ResultsThe expowo package is implemented in R and designed to handle the entire vascular plant tree of life. It includes functions to readily distill taxonomic and distributional information about all families, genera, or species of vascular plants. It outputs a complete list of species in each genus of any plant family, with the associated original publication, synonyms, and distribution, and plots global maps of species richness at the country and botanical country levels, as well as graphs displaying species‐discovery accumulation curves and nomenclatural changes over time. To demonstrate expowo's strengths in producing easy‐to‐handle outputs, we also show empirical examples from a set of biodiverse countries and representative species‐rich and ecologically important angiosperm families.ConclusionsBy harnessing bioinformatic tools that accommodate varying levels of R programming proficiency, expowo functions assist users who have limited R programming expertise in efficiently distilling specific botanical information from online sources and producing maps and graphics for the further interpretation of biogeographic and taxonomic patterns.
Pathways to social inequality Hannah J. Haynie, Patrick H. Kavanagh, Fiona M. Jordan, Carol R Ember, Russell D. Gray, et al. Evolutionary Human Sciences, 2021
The global geography of human subsistence Michael C. Gavin, Patrick H. Kavanagh, Hannah J. Haynie, Claire Bowern, Carol R. Ember, et al. Royal Society Open Science, 2018
