GOTHENBURG, Sweden, Nov. 29 (UPI) -- The Amazon Basin's impressive biodiversity was started by the creation of the Andes, pushing its beginnings earlier than previously thought, a researcher says.
While researchers have long suspected the diversity of the Amazonian rainforest was affected by the Andes, the causal links have long been the subject of debate among scientists.
A team of researchers led by Alexandre Antonelli from the University of Gothenburg compared the pattern of current biodiversity in Amazonia with geological and molecular data for the past 65 million years, from the time the South American continent separated from Africa and the dinosaurs became extinct, a university release reported. The results show the greatest biodiversity is to be found in areas connected with the Andes, areas that formed when the tectonic plates along the Pacific coast came together to create the Andes range.
The new mountains had a major impact on the environment, with living conditions changing fundamentally for plants and animals in Amazonia, Antonelli says.
The restructuring of region's topography changed the large wetland areas found in northern South America, which dried up as the Amazon River formed, opening up new land for colonization by plants and animals.
"We were surprised that there was such a strong link between the formation of the Andes and the diversity in Amazonia," says Antonelli, who was born in Brazil. "The area was considered a kind of paradise where evolution could take place undisturbed, but this hasn't been the case at all -- a lot has happened in the region."
