Diversification trajectories and paleobiogeography of Neogene chondrichthyans in Europe

Despite the rich fossil record of Neogene chondrichthyans (chimaeras, sharks, rays and skates) from Europe, little is known about the macroevolutionary processes that generated their current diversity and geographical distribution. We compiled 4,419 Neogene occurrences comprising 102 genera, 41 families and 12 orders from four European regions (Atlantic, Mediterranean, North Sea and Paratethys) and evaluated their diversification trajectories and paleobiogeographic patterns. In all analysed regions, we found that the generic richness increased during the early Miocene, then decreased sharply during the middle Miocene in the Paratethys and moderately during the late Miocene and Pliocene in the Mediterranean and North seas. Origination rates display the most significant pulses in the early Miocene in all regions. Extinction rate pulses varied across regions, with the Paratethys displaying the most significant pulses during the late Miocene and the Mediterranean and North seas during the l..., Data.—We gathered chondrichthyan occurrences at the genus level from the Neogene (23 to 2.6 Ma) of Europe based on a comprehensive literature quest that consisted in searching for the terms \"chondrichthyans\", \"fossil\", \"Neogene\" and \"Europe\" in Google Scholar (https://scholar.google.com). This resulted in 122 journal articles, unpublished theses, conference abstracts and books. This information was complemented with data downloaded from Paleobiology Database (PBDB; https://paleobiodb.org) and from museum online collections databases (Table S1). Additionally, collections housed in the Natural History Museum of Vienna and the State Museum of Natural History of Stuttgart, Germany, were examined. In total, we collected 4,419 occurrences (Fig. 1; Table S1), which we assigned to four regions: Atlantic (n=433), Mediterranean Sea (n=750), North Sea (n=614), and Paratethys (n=2622), based on the paleogeographic reconstructions proposed by Rögl (1999). The regional stratigraphic stages (i.e., Par...,