Abstract
Aim The P alaeocene–late E ocene transition in N orth A merica marks a critical interval in the evolution and diversification of land mammals, including adaptive radiation in the P alaeocene, and repeated waves of immigration over habitat bridges at the P alaeocene– E ocene boundary. We investigate the fossil record of ungulate mammals over this period to understand the effects of immigration and faunal exchange on local (alpha), regional (gamma) and between‐site (beta) diversity. Location N orth A merica. Methods We use P alaeocene and E ocene records of N orth A merican ungulate mammals taken from the Paleobiology Database ( PBDB ), and calculate beta diversity among families and genera within the seven stages of the C enozoic. We reconstruct geographic ranges sizes for studied taxa, and test trends in these ranges against null models used to control for sampling biases. Finally, we use Mantel tests to quantify the relationship between geographic distance and faunal dissimilarity within each time slice, in order to visualize changes in the spatial complexity of mammal communities. Results Gamma diversity increases over the studied interval, with varying contributions from alpha and beta diversity. Beta diversity increases from the P alaeocene to E ocene, reflected in decreasing range size and increased correlation between reconstructed distance and faunal similarity. Increase in beta diversity over the P alaeocene– E ocene transition is driven by smaller geographic ranges among putatively invasive ‘immigrant’ and secondarily endemic taxa; range contraction among these groups in the middle–late E ocene leads to a B artonian peak in beta diversity. Main conclusions High gamma diversity in the E ocene was driven by high beta diversity rather than alpha diversity, indicating that range contraction in both immigrant and secondarily endemic taxa restructured the spatial organization of mammal communities. These parallel trends suggest that factors such as tectonic uplift or climate change were responsible, as opposed to ecological differences. Increase in beta diversity over the P alaeocene– E ocene boundary suggests that over longer time‐scales, mass immigration events can lead to greater overall richness and greater heterogeneity, rather than homogeneity, within regional assemblages.