Wallace’s century-old map of natural world updated

Until today, a map from 1876 has been the backbone for our understanding of global biodiversity. Thanks to advances in modern technology and data on more than 20,000 species, scientists have now produced a next-generation map depicting the organization of life on Earth. Published online in Science Express , the new map provides fundamental information regarding the diversity of life on our planet and is of major significance for future biodiversity research. An essential question in understanding life on Earth is why species are distributed the way they are across the planet. This new global map shows the division of nature into 11 large biogeographic realms and shows how these areas relate to each other. It is the first study to combine evolutionary and geographical information for all known mammals, birds and amphibians, a total of over 20,000 species. Based on work at the Center for Macroecology, Evolution and Climate at the University of Copenhagen involving 15 international researchers and 20 years of data compilation, Co-lead author Jean-Philippe Lessard is now a postdoctoral fellow at the Quebec Centre for Biodiversity Science, based at McGill University in Montreal.