Data from: Vrba was right: Historical climatic fragmentation, and not current climate, explains mammal biogeography

Climate plays a crucial role in shaping species distribution and evolution
over time. Dr. Elisabeth Vrba’s Resource-Use hypothesis posited that zones
at the extremes of temperature and precipitation conditions should host a
greater number of climate specialist species than other zones because of
higher historical fragmentation. Here, we tested this hypothesis by
examining climate-induced fragmentation over the past 5 million years. Our
findings revealed that, as stated by Vrba, the number of climate
specialist species increases with historical regional climate
fragmentation, whereas climate generalist species richness decreases. This
relationship is approximately 40% stronger than the correlation between
current climate and species richness for climate specialist species and
77% stronger for generalist species. These evidences suggest that the
effect of climate historical fragmentation is more significant than that
of current climate conditions in explaining mammal biogeography. These
results provide empirical support for the role of historical climate
fragmentation and physiography in shaping the distribution and evolution
of life on Earth.