A coherent biogeographic framework for Old World Neogene and Pleistocene mammals

In order to understand mammalian evolution and compute a wide range of biodiversity indices, we commonly use spatial division adapted to ecological and evolutionary constraints called bioregion. While commonly conducted by neontologists, the establishment of bioregions in palaeontology is generally a secondary analysis, shaped on subjective time scales and areas specific to the investigated questions and groups. This heterogeneity, coupled with the scale-dependency of biodiversity indices, prevents the clear identification of macroecological and macroevolutionary trends for large taxonomic groups like extinct mammals. Here we tackle this issue by providing a coherent framework for Neogene and Pleistocene mammals of the Old World following two steps: (A) a temporal scale adapted to mammalian evolutionary history (i.e. evolutionary fauna) is defined by poly-cohort analysis, and (B) bioregions are then computed for each evolutionary fauna by clustering, ordination and intermediate approach...