Spatial variation in assemblage-level tip-based metrics
Regions in the Amazon Basin and portions of the Atlantic Rainforest have
enjoyed environmental stability since the Eocene (Burnham and Johnson
2004), and Patagonia and Andean regions suffered few cumulative changes
in climate since the Last Glacial Maximum (Sandel et al. 2011). These
regions generally present slow-evolving species (Maestri et al. 2019)
and high levels of endemism and diversity accumulation over time
(Dynnerius and Jansson 2000; Sandel et al. 2011). Here these regions
were recovered as the ones having assemblages of species with low
transition rates, high stasis time, and long times since last
transition. These findings show that environmental stability favors
retention of an ancestral diet.