Diversification in the Neotropics
The tropics are home to the world's richest and most diverse faunas--what field biologist wouldn't be fascinated by them? Since 1983, I have examined the systematics and biogeography of South American mammals, especially Andean ones, through a long series of research projects involving some 24 months of fieldwork. Early projects focused on Subantarctic and Valdivian Forests (in collaboration with Milton Gallardo, Universidad Austral de Chile). Later ones led me in succession to the Altiplano and yungas of Bolivia (with Nuria Bernal, Colección Boliviana de Fauna), the Western Slope in Peru (with Víctor Pacheco of Universidad Nacional Mayor de San Marcos and Horacio Zeballos of Universidad Nacional de San Agustín, Arequipa), and the Eastern Versant, from Cuzco (1999-2001) to Moyabamba (2006) with Paúl Velazco and Yasuní, Ecuador (2011) with Ale Camacho and Santiago Burneo of PUCE. I have also worked in south-central Amazonia (Rondônia) and Atlantic Forest (Sao Paulo) through the University of Sao Paulo, as well as in the Antilles (Puerto Rico). All of these studies have sought to characterize and relate these regions of endemism in terms of their mammal faunas and to understand their contributions to biological diversification in the tropics.
Lowland rainforest at Yasuní, Ecuador (photo from May 2011)
Check out this slideshow of bats encountered during our last expedition to Ecuador!
Gracilinanus cf. aceramarcae in La Esperanza, Cuzco, Peru
This work fosters international collection and training at various scientific levels. It also generates scientific collections and technical articles on the systematics and biogeography of rodents, bats, and marsupials. It served as the focus for a pair of symposia that Leonora P. Costa (Universidade Federal do Espírito Santo) and I organized at the 10th INTERNATIONAL MAMMALOGICAL CONGRESS in Mendoza, Argentina. The symposia (and the edited volume that resulted from it) considered the geologic history of South America and its relationships to other continents, introduced the continent's paleofaunas and the climates that shaped them, and then characterized each of the principal regions of endemism in the Neotropics to understand the development of their modern mammal faunas. This work was published in June 2012 by the University of Chicago Press.
Studies of Neotropical faunas gave rise to my interests in host-parasite coevolution and the diversity of bats in the Afrotropics, both of which are described on flanking pages. Currently, field work contributes to studies of both the mammals and the host-parasite relationship.
Both fieldwork and study of collections contribute to The Field Museum's Collections of Mammals, which are described at greater length in the linked page, which also includes a link to query the collection database. Information on the collections can also be accessed through MaNIS, VertNet, or GBIF.
Rossoni, D.M., B.D. Patterson, G. Marroig, J.M. Cheverud & D. Houle. 2024. The role of (co)variation in shaping the response to selection in the New World leaf-nosed bats. The American Naturalist 203(4): E107-E127. DOI
Missagia, R.V., D.M. Casali, B.D. Patterson & F.A. Perini. 2023. Decoupled patterns of diversity and disparity characterize an ecologically specialized lineage of Neotropical cricetids. Evolutionary Biology 50(2): 181-196. DOI
Mejía-Fontecha, I. Y., Ossa-López, P. A., Rivera-Páez, F. A., Patterson, B. D., & Ramírez-Chaves, H. E. (2022). Updated distribution map and notes on the cranial morphometry of Dasyprocta azarae Lichtenstein, 1823, Azara's Agouti (Mammalia, Rodentia, Dasyproctidae), in South America. Check List, 18(5): 995–1003. DOI-open access
Teta, P., N.U. de la Sancha, G. D’Elía & B.D. Patterson. 2022. Andean rain shadow effect drives phenotypic variation in a widely distributed Austral rodent. Journal of Biogeography 49(10): 1767–1778. DOI
Maestri, R., A.L. Luza, S.M. Hartz, T.R.O. de Freitas & B.D. Patterson. 2022. Bridging macroecology and macroevolution in the radiation of sigmodontine rodents. Evolution 76(8): 1790–1805. DOI
Luza, A.L., R. Maestri, V.J. Debastiani, B.D. Patterson, S.M. Hartz & L. Silva Duarte. 2021. Is evolution faster at ecotones? A test using rates and tempo of diet transitions in Neotropical Sigmodontinae (Rodentia, Cricetidae). Ecology and Evolution 11(24): 18676-18690. DOI-open access
Guimarães, R.R., R. Gomes Rocha, A.C. Loss, A.C. Mendes de Oliveira, B.D. Patterson & L.P. Costa. 2021. Molecular and morphological discordance in the taxonomic rearrangement of the Marmosops pinheiroi complex (Marsupialia: Didelphidae). Systematics and Biodiversity 19(7): 770-781. DOI
Hendges, C.D., B.D. Patterson & N.C. Cáceres. 2021. Big in the tropics: ecogeographic clines in peccary size reveal the converse of Bergmann’s Rule. Journal of Biogeography 48(5): 1228-1239. DOI
Patterson, B.D., H.E. Ramírez Chaves, J.F. Vilela, A.E.R. Soares & F. Grewe. 2021. On the nomenclature of the American clade of weasels (Carnivora: Mustelidae). Journal of Animal Diversity 3(2): 1-8. DOI-open access
Moreno Cárdenas, P.A., N. Tinoco, L. Albuja & B.D. Patterson. 2021. A new species of Rhagomys (Rodentia, Sigmodontinae) from southeastern Ecuador. Journal of Mammalogy 102(1): 123–138. DOI
Maestri, R. & B.D. Patterson. 2021. Geographical and macroecological patterns of tuco-tucos. Pp. 69-81, In Tuco-tucos – An evolutionary approach to the diversity of a Neotropical rodent (T.R.O. de Freitas, G.L. Gonçalves & R. Maestri, eds.). Springer Nature, Switzerland. DOI
Missagia, R.V., B.D. Patterson, D. Krentzel & F.A. Perini. 2021. Insectivory leads to functional convergence in a group of Neotropical rodents. Journal of Evolutionary Biology 34(2): 391–402 + cover. DOI
