چکیده

The boundaries between and within different zoogeographic realms have always been harshly debated by biogeographers. For instance, the divide between Western and Eastern Palaearctic is mired in controversy. Long ascribed in its entirety to the latter, Iran has been recently proposed to be rather fully part of the former in the Great Western Palaearctic. Over the last years, however, an increasing body of research on faunal distribution in Iran has evidenced a sharp distinction between the fauna inhabiting the western and eastern portion of the country. While some of the species inhabiting the western portion have a clear Western Palaearctic affinity, others living in the eastern counterpart are rather associated with the Eastern Palaearctic region. Furthermore, eastern Iran is also home to faunal components typical of the Indo-Malayan realm. Here, we reviewed published data to gather useful information regarding a reappraisal of the intra-Palaearctic boundary. We found that, even though the Zagros Mountain still represent the main biogeographical barriers of the country, a sharp divide runs longitudinally across the country and largely overlaps the inhospitable Kavir and Lut deserts. Moreover, some species occurring on both sides of this divide have isolated and genetically distinct populations. These evidence points to a third, and possibly more plausible hypothesis, namely that the Western-Eastern Palaearctic boundary runs just across Iran which is indeed home to a rich faunal diversity at the crossroads of multiple biogeographical regions.

کليدواژه ها

zoogeographical realm, Great Western Palaearctic, Zagros Mountains, Kavir and Lut deserts, faunal diversity

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Giovanni Forcina , 1400 , Western-Eastern Palaearctic boundary: inferences from faunal distribution in Iran , اولین همایش بین المللی بوم شناسی و حفاظت از تنوع زیستی