"This provides the first evidence of a major involvement from the Andes as a source of diversity for the Amazon and northeastern forests of Colombia," said herpetologist David Wake, of the University of California, Berkeley. "It is really the first pretty good demonstration that the mountains are acting as a species pump." Alternate theories have proposed that the Amazon is like a museum that has been stable for a long enough time to support an excessively high number of species. "They've deeply enriched our understanding of what causes tropical diversity to be so over the top," Wake told Discovery News. "It's not just a little bit more diverse. It's horrendously more diverse." Now that they have such an extensive and detailed family tree for poison frogs, researchers can also begin to prioritize conservation efforts. It may make more sense, for example, to put effort into saving a species that is ancient and unique rather than one that evolved recently and has lots of close relatives. Related Links: |
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