LAS TORTUGAS NEOTROPICALES Y SUS ÁREAS DE ENDEMISMO.

The existence of endemic species allows to delimit areas of endemismo in order to characterize biogeographic regions over the world; the latter are useful to recognize historical processes that could affect the biota. The objective of this work is to determine the areas of endemism of continental, terrestrial and freshwater turtles in the Neotropical region (N = 64 species). A Parsimony Analysis of Endemicity (PAE) was carried out, which allowed to recognize 5 areas, two located in Mexico and three in South America. Three secondary areas were also identified in México and one in the north of South America. Secondary areas are definied by the presence of one endemic species with restricted geographic distribution. While comparing the pattern of areas of endemism obtained for turtles, to those definied using different methods, for other unrelated taxa. We observed that the pattern is not random. The common pattern could have originated due to the effect of congruent historical and ecological processes that affected the Neotropical region as a whole. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]