Niche similarities among white-eared opossums (Mammalia, Didelphidae): Is ecological niche modelling relevant to setting species limits?

摘要

A complex of white-eared opossums (Didelphis spp.) is distributed across three distinct areas of South America, but recent taxonomic treatments have disagreed regarding species limits in the group. We used ecological niche modelling to test whether ecological niches have been conserved or have diverged among the three forms in this group. Differences in combinations of niche and range were clear; however, when hypotheses of accessible areas for each species were considered, coarse-grained niche dimensions (i.e. climatic dimensions) were seen not to differ across the complex. We discuss implications of these results for taxonomic recognition of species based on geographic and ecological characteristics and the implications of using ENM approaches to setting species limits. We suggest that ENM should be used to explore speciation mechanisms, rather than being applied to questions of setting species limits.