Explosive Radiation or Cryptic Mass Extinction? Interpreting Signatures in Molecular Phylogenies

How biodiversity is generated and maintained underlies many major questions in evolutionary biology, particularly relating to the tempo and pattern of diversification through time. Molecular phytogenies and new analytical methods provide additional tools to help interpret evolutionary processes. Evo...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Evolution 2009-09, Vol.63 (9), p.2257-2265
Main Authors: Crisp, Michael D., Cook, Lyn G.
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Adaptive radiation
Biodiversity
Birth and death rates
Chronograms
Climate
Climatic changes
Computer Simulation
Evolution
Evolution & development
Evolution, Molecular
Explosives
Extinction
Extinction, Biological
Fabaceae - genetics
Fossils
Genetic Speciation
Legumes
lineage diversification
Mass extinction events
Modeling
Models, Genetic
Molecular structure
Mortality
ORIGINAL ARTICLES
Phylogeny
Radiation
rate shift
Signatures
Simulation
Taxa
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Summary:How biodiversity is generated and maintained underlies many major questions in evolutionary biology, particularly relating to the tempo and pattern of diversification through time. Molecular phytogenies and new analytical methods provide additional tools to help interpret evolutionary processes. Evolutionary rates in lineages sometimes appear punctuated, and such “explosive” radiations are commonly interpreted as adaptive, leading to causative key innovations being sought. Here we argue that an alternative process might explain apparently rapid radiations (“broom-and-handle” or “stemmy” patterns seen in many phytogenies) with no need to invoke dramatic increase in the rate of diversification. We use simulations to show that mass extinction events can produce the same phylogenetic pattern as that currently being interpreted as due to an adaptive radiation. By comparing simulated and empirical phytogenies of Australian and southern African legumes, we find evidence for coincident mass extinctions in multiple lineages that could have resulted from global climate change at the end of the Eocene.
ISSN:0014-3820
1558-5646
DOI:10.1111/j.1558-5646.2009.00728.x