Vol. 80 No. 2 Suppl. (2025)
Articles

A synthesis of the biogeographic history of Brazil’s phytogeographic domains

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  • Aline Possamai Della,
  • Jefferson Prado
Aline Possamai Della
Universidade de São Paulo, Instituto de Biociências, Programa de Pós-Graduação em Botânica, Rua do Matão 277, CEP 05508-090, São Paulo, SP, Brasil
Jefferson Prado
Instituto de Pesquisas Ambientais, Herbário SP, Av. Miguel Estéfano 3687, CEP 04301-012, São Paulo, SP, Brasil
DOI: https://doi.org/10.36253/jopt-19145

Published 2025-11-17

Keywords

  • Amazon Rainforest,
  • Brazilian Atlantic Forest,
  • Caatinga,
  • Cerrado

How to Cite

Possamai Della, A., & Prado, J. (2025). A synthesis of the biogeographic history of Brazil’s phytogeographic domains. Webbia, 80(2), 61–75. https://doi.org/10.36253/jopt-19145

Copyright (c) 2025 Aline Possamai Della, Jefferson Prado

Creative Commons License

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.

Abstract

In this study, we provide a comprehensive and updated overview of the biogeographic history of several Brazilian phytogeographic domains: the Amazon Rainforest, Brazilian Atlantic Forest, Caatinga, Cerrado, Pampa, and Pantanal. We also outline the main hypotheses that were proposed to explain the distribution patterns and endemism of taxa within these domains. The tropical forests, specifically the Amazon Rainforest and the Brazilian Atlantic Forest, were likely continuous during the Eocene optimum. However, global cooling and increased aridity in the late Eocene and part of the Oligocene led to the fragmentation of these extensive tropical forests. This fragmentation resulted in the creation of the dry diagonal, which includes the Cerrado, Caatinga, Pantanal, and Chaco regions. The dry diagonal served as a geographic barrier, promoting the formation of the Brazilian Atlantic Forest to the East and the Amazon Rainforest to the West. Despite this barrier, forest corridors likely existed between these domains, playing a crucial role in the segregation of the Caatinga from the Cerrado. The Caatinga is the most recent of these domains, having formed in the early to mid-Holocene. The lineages characteristic of the Cerrado likely diversified between the Miocene and early Pliocene.

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