We also outline a few of the many topics in Neotropical biodiversity that can be studied in the "trans-disciplinary biogeographic approach" advocated here. The figure shows examples of the large diversity of Neotropical habitats and the taxa that inhabit those habitats.
Map of the Neotropical region, spanning from Central Mexico to central Argentina (red dashed line) and including all Caribbean Islands. Our review highlights the great opportunities for studying the Neotropical biota to understand the evolution of life.
We urge more coordination and integration of data and ideas among disciplines, transcending their traditional boundaries, as a basis for advancing tomorrow’s ground-breaking research. We caution against extrapolating results derived from the study of one or a few taxa to convey general scenarios of Neotropical evolution and landscape formation. In this review, aimed primarily at advanced students and early-career scientists, we introduce the concept of “trans-disciplinary biogeography,” which refers to the integration of data from multiple areas of research in biology (e.g., community ecology, phylogeography, systematics, historical biogeography) and Earth and the physical sciences (e.g., geology, climatology, palaeontology), as a means to reconstruct the giant puzzle of Neotropical biodiversity and evolution in space and time. Additional biological and geological data are still needed, as well as methodological advances that are capable of bridging these research fields. Despite major advances in recent years in our understanding of the origin and diversification of many Neotropical taxa and biotic regions, many questions remain to be answered.
The unparalleled biodiversity found in the American tropics (the Neotropics) has attracted the attention of naturalists for centuries.
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