Affiliation:
1. Laboratorio de Biología de Peces Instituto de Investigaciones Marinas y Costeras (IIMyC), Universidad Nacional de Mar del Plata (UNMdP) Mar del Plata Argentina
2. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas (CONICET) Buenos Aires Argentina
3. Instituto Nacional de Investigación y Desarrollo Pesquero (INIDEP) Mar del Plata Argentina
4. Comisión de Investigaciones Científicas de la Provincia de Buenos Aires (CIC) La Plata Argentina
5. Laboratorio de Ecología de Peces Centro para el Estudio de Sistemas Marinos (CESIMAR) Puerto Madryn Argentina
Abstract
AbstractHere, we highlight the geological processes that resulted in the current conformation of the southern Southwest Atlantic Ocean, and explore the heterogeneous composition of the marine ichthyofauna found between 33° and 56° from a paleobiological perspective. During the early Cretaceous (140 Mya), the South Atlantic was still not formed, and Gondwana was probably a set of united plates with shallow continental waters. In the middle Cretaceous (112 Mya), the major Gondwanan plates started diverging from each other, allowing shallow marine intrusions and the diversification of an endemic fish fauna. By the end of the Mesozoic (66 Mya), the proto‐South Atlantic connected with the North Atlantic, which was still part of the Tethys Sea, allowing its ichthyofauna to colonize the south and reach the Antarctic region. The opening of the Drake Passage in the Oligocene (33 Mya) enabled the cold waters of the Pacific Ocean to reach the South Atlantic, causing drastic effects on the thermophilic fauna and favoring the dispersion of cold‐water species. Successive glaciations during the Quaternary (2 Myr to 10,000 years ago) resulted in the prevalence of Antarctic climatic conditions in the southern Southwest Atlantic. The long history of changing scenarios in the constitution of the southern Southwest Atlantic is reflected in the heterogeneous composition of the marine ichthyofauna between 33° and 56°S, which is characterized by a mixture of cosmopolitan, Tethyan, Pacific, Gondwanan, Antarctic, and endemic origins.
Subject
Ecology,Aquatic Science,Ecology, Evolution, Behavior and Systematics
Reference71 articles.
1. Marine fronts at the continental shelves of austral South America
2. Ecological Processes at Marine Fronts
3. Systematics and osteology of the Zoarcidae (Teleostei: Perciformes);Anderson M. E.;Ichthyological Bulletin of the J.L.B. Smith Institute of Ichthyology,1994
4. Alimentación de la merluza en la región del talud continental argentino, época invernal (Merlucciidae, Merluccius merluccius hubbsi);Angelescu V. A.;Boletín del Instituto de Biología Marina,1969