Low climatic niche overlap among allopatric woolly opossum species reflects phylogenetic and geographic influences in the Neotropics

The study of species distribution has long intrigued naturalists, driven by ecological and evolutionary processes such as species interactions, climatic, and geological factors. Understanding these patterns is crucial for comprehending biodiversity. Despite extensive knowledge of species distributions, there is limited understanding of how climatic niches influence spatial segregation among closely related Neotropical marsupials, specifically the genus Caluromys . In this study, we investigated whether climatic niches determine the spatial segregation of Caluromys species in the Neotropical region, hypothesizing that niche overlap would be high due to geographical subdivision. We collected occurrence data for Caluromys species from the literature and the Global Biodiversity Information Facility, yielding 1,158 cleaned coordinates. We used 19 bioclimatic variables from WorldClim for historical climate data and analyzed climatic niche overlap through indices (Schoener’s D and Hellinger’s I) using Principal Component Analysis (PCA). We found low climatic niche overlap among Caluromys species pairs, with higher overlap between C. derbianus and C. lanatus than among other pairs. Contrary to our hypothesis, Caluromys species exhibited low climatic niche overlap on a broad geographic scale. The study emphasizes the need to investigate niche overlap at different geographic scales and highlights the role of historical climatic events in shaping current species distributions and niches.