Data from: Reviewing the Great American Biotic Interchange: Climate change as a trigger for biodiversity dispersal

Freitas-Oliveira, Roniel 1 ; Lima-Ribeiro, Matheus2; Mendoza-Rodriguez, Victor1; Terribile, Levi3

Published Oct 07, 2025 on Dryad. https://doi.org/10.5061/dryad.qv9s4mwt6

Data files

Oct 07, 2025 version files 7.33 KB

README.md

3.86 KB
RSPB-2025-1745.zip

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Abstract

The Great American Biotic Interchange (GABI), during which an intense biodiversity interchange occurred between South and North America, strongly affected the biodiversity of the Americas. Despite its importance, there are still knowledge gaps regarding the factors triggering species dispersion, the taxonomic groups that first dispersed, the age at which dispersions began and intensified, and whether there was a main dispersal direction through the continent (from North to South America or vice versa). To fill these gaps, we conducted a scientific literature review of GABI, searching for studies with information regarding dispersal age, taxonomic groups (invertebrates, amphibians, non-avian reptiles, birds, mammals, and plants), dispersion direction (toward South or North America), and the type of data used as the source of evidence (fossil, molecular, or living species). We also investigate the effect of the climatic dynamic on the biodiversity dispersal through the relationships between oxygen-isotope levels (δ 18O, as a proxy of past temperatures) and the number and geological age of dispersal records. Only 41.8% (87 publications) of the studies included information on biodiversity dispersion during the GABI. We found evidence of the GABI starting at 23 million years ago (Ma) and becoming a continuous process from approximately 15 Ma. Cooling periods after the Miocene Climate Optimum (MCO) favoured continuous dispersals, which have since intensified. Studies based on molecular data recovered more closely related to the intermediate ages of dispersal records. In addition, birds, plants, and mammals were displaced first, whereas amphibians were displaced last.

Dataset DOI: 10.5061/dryad.qv9s4mwt6

Description of the data and file structure

Dataset Title

Reviewing the Great American Biotic Interchange: climate change as a trigger for biodiversity dispersal

Date of Article submission 2025

Contributors

Roniel Freitas-Oliveira - Programa de Pós-Graduação em Ecologia e Evolução, Instituto de Ciências Biológicas, Universidade Federal de Goiás, Goiânia, GO, Brazil;

Matheus S. Lima-Ribeiro - National Institute for Science and Technology (INCT) in Ecology, Evolution and Biodiversity Conservation, Goiânia, Goiás, Brazil;

Victor H. Mendoza-Rodriguez - Programa de Pós-Graduação em Ecologia e Evolução, Instituto de Ciências Biológicas, Universidade Federal de Goiás, Goiânia, GO, Brazil;

Levi Carina Terribile - Laboratório de Macroecologia, Universidade Federal de Jataí, UFJ, Jataí, GO, Brazil;

Overview

This dataset provides the necessary information to reproduce the analyses presented in the article, including the associated tables and R core code. This dataset relates to The Great American Biotic Interchange, revised with information about dispersal events using temperature proxies, directions of movement (North to South and vice versa), types of evidence (fossil, molecular, or species), and the taxonomic groups involved in the dispersal (Mammals, Birds, Amphibians, Reptiles, Invertebrates, and Plants).

The data are organised across the following tables (.txt and .csv): year_oxy, Data.txt, evi_pca.txt, pca_group_direction.csv, and pca_group_evidence.csv.

File: year_oxy
Variables:

Age – Geological time in millions of years (from 23 to 0 Ma).
DNumber – Number of biodiversity dispersal events between North and South America.
oxy18 – Oxygen-18 isotope data, used as a temperature proxy.

File: Data.txt
Variables:

Age – Geological time in millions of years (from 23 to 0 Ma).
General – Total number of dispersal events across all groups.
Mammals, Birds, Invertebrates, Plants, Amphibians, Reptiles – Number of dispersal events for each group at each time interval.

File: evi_pca.txt
Variables:

Species, Molecular, Fossils – Number of dispersal events supported by each type of evidence.

File: pca_group_direction.csv
Variables:

Direction – Direction of dispersal (North to South or South to North).
Mammals, Birds, Amphibians, Reptiles, Invertebrates, Plants – Number of dispersal events for each taxonomic group.

File: pca_group_evidence.csv
Variables:

Evidence – Type of evidence used (fossil, molecular, or species).
Mammals, Birds, Amphibians, Reptiles, Invertebrates, Plants – Number of dispersal events for each group supported by each evidence type.

Data Formats

Metadata:

.txt and .csv: contain the information required to run the analyses.

.R: provides the R code necessary to reproduce the analyses step by step.

Files and variables

File: RSPB-2025-1745.zip

Description: data

Code/software

R Core Development Team R. 2021 A Language and Environment for Statistical Computing. R Foundation for Statistical Computing. 2, https://www.R-project.org.

Access information

Other publicly accessible locations of the data:

Data was derived from the following sources:

The oxy18 variable derived from: Zachos JC, Dickens GR, Zeebe RE. 2008 An early Cenozoic perspective on greenhouse warming and carbon-cycle dynamics. Nature 451, 279–283. (doi:10.1038/nature06588)