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Diversity, diversification and distribution of Iranian vertebrates: the legacy of mountains uplifting, past climatic oscillations, sea level fluctuations and geographical barriers

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Abstract

Identifying historical drivers of biodiversity distribution patterns is a central issue in ecology and biogeography. Iran is a biodiversity-rich country in southwestern Asia. It is known that past events like climatic oscillations and mountains uplifting have had an outstanding impact on evolution, speciation, and diversification of biodiversity in the country. However, evidence of the impacts of past events on species distribution and genetic structure is sparse. Thus, in this paper, we have assembled the first review, combining results of different studies on different taxonomic groups (mammals, birds, reptiles, amphibians, and freshwater fishes) to identify the most important past events and geographical barriers that have shaped the current distribution patterns of vertebrate species and their genetic structure in Iran. We also presented the most comprehensive and updated checklist of vertebrate species of Iran. The vertebrates of Iran comprise 1317 species in 516 genera, 167 families, and 53 orders, of which 180 species (13.67% of total fauna) considered as endemic. By assessing 85 published papers we identified three major past events in Iran which are responsible for the current distribution patterns of vertebrate species and their genetic structure. These include mountain uplifting, past climatic oscillations, and sea level change. We also identified several geographical barriers which played a very critical role in sha** vertebrate species distribution patterns in Iran. The uplifting of the Zagros Mountains was the most important event that played a critical role in sha** the distribution and genetic structure of all vertebrate groups in Iran. Past climate change was found to be very influential in sha** species richness patterns, particularly reptile richness and genetic divergence patterns (Persian abstract presented in Online Resource 1).

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Acknowledgements

We thank Ollie Thomas for reviewing our manuscript. We also thank Arash Jouladeh-Roudbar for providing an annotated checklist of freshwater fishes of Iran to be included in this study.

Funding

The authors declare that no funds, grants, or other support were received during the preparation of this manuscript.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Stiftung Neanderthal Museum, Talstr. 300, 40822, Mettmann, Germany

    Masoud Yousefi

  2. Department of Biology, Faculty of Science, Urmia University, Urmia, Iran

    Ahmad Mahmoudi

  3. Department of Biology, Razi University, Kermanshah, Iran

    Somaye Vaissi

  4. Department of Environmental Sciences, Faculty of Natural Resources, University of Tehran, Tehran, Iran

    Anooshe Kafash

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  1. Masoud Yousefi
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  2. Ahmad Mahmoudi
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  3. Somaye Vaissi
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Contributions

MY had the idea for the article. MY performed the literature search. The first draft of the manuscript was written by MY with contribution from AM, SV, and AK. All authors read and approved the final manuscript.

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Correspondence to Masoud Yousefi.

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Yousefi, M., Mahmoudi, A., Vaissi, S. et al. Diversity, diversification and distribution of Iranian vertebrates: the legacy of mountains uplifting, past climatic oscillations, sea level fluctuations and geographical barriers. Biodivers Conserv 32, 7–36 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10531-022-02499-2

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