Data from: Museums and cradles of diversity are geographically coincident for narrowly distributed Neotropical snakes

Factors driving the spatial configuration of centres of endemism have long
been a topic of broad interest and debate. Due to different
eco-evolutionary processes, these highly biodiverse areas may harbour
different amounts of ancient and recently diverged organisms (paleo- and
neo-endemism, respectively). Patterns of endemism still need to be
measured at distinct phylogenetic levels for most clades and,
consequently, little is known about the distribution, the age and the
causes of such patterns. Here we tested for the presence of centres with
high Phylogenetic Endemism (PE) in the highly diverse Neotropical snakes,
testing the age of these patterns (paleo- or neo-endemism), and the
presence of PE centres with distinct phylogenetic composition. We then
tested whether PE is predicted by topography, by climate (seasonality,
stability, buffering and relictualness), or biome size. We found that most
areas of high PE for Neotropical snakes present a combination of both
ancient and recently diverged diversity, which is distributed mostly in
the Caribbean region, Central America, the Andes, the Atlantic Forest and
on scattered highlands in central Brazil. Turnover of lineages is higher
across Central America, resulting in more phylogenetically distinct PE
centres compared to South America, which presents a more phylogenetically
uniform snake fauna. Finally, we found that elevational range (topographic
roughness) is the main predictor of PE, especially for paleo-endemism,
whereas low paleo-endemism levels coincide with areas of high climatic
seasonality. Our study highlights the importance of mountain systems to
both ancient and recent narrowly distributed diversity. Mountains are both
museums and cradles of snake diversity in the Neotropics, which has
important implications for conservation in this region.