Article
Biodiversity Conservation
R. Alexander Pyron, Matt Pennell
Summary: Macroevolutionary research on extinction has primarily focused on large-scale processes, while recent conservation studies concentrate on population-level dynamics in the Anthropocene. Combining these perspectives can reveal hidden assumptions of value and highlight promising research agendas in conservation biology.
BIOLOGICAL CONSERVATION
(2022)
Article
Ecology
Michael Foote
Summary: Through comparing detrended estimates of diversity and rates of origination, extinction, and net diversification, the study shows that at the global scale, there is a negative correlation between rates of diversification and origination and diversity. However, the correlation between extinction rates and diversity is weak. This diversity-dependent diversification is a pervasive factor in the macroevolution of marine animal life.
AMERICAN NATURALIST
(2023)
Article
Multidisciplinary Sciences
B. Davis Barnes, Judith A. Sclafani, Andrew Zaffos
Summary: The term "dead clades walking" (DCWs) was coined to describe marine fossil orders that do not rediversify to previous levels after significant drops in genus richness during mass extinction events. Analysis of fossil occurrences of 134 skeletonized marine invertebrate orders suggests that many of these DCWs orders persist for a long duration (>30 Myr), impacting taxonomic diversity even beyond extinction events. The prevalence of DCW orders across mass and background extinction intervals in various phyla indicates that the DCW pattern is a major component of macroevolutionary turnover.
PROCEEDINGS OF THE NATIONAL ACADEMY OF SCIENCES OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA
(2021)
Article
Evolutionary Biology
Giovanni Laudanno, Bart Haegeman, Daniel L. Rabosky, Rampal S. Etienne
Summary: This article introduces different models and inference methods for phylogenetic trees with varying diversification rates, proposing a new framework for calculating likelihood that has been shown to be more accurate through simulations. The corrected likelihood can also be applied to models with multiple rate shifts, resolving the recent debate on unobserved shifts in diversification rates.
SYSTEMATIC BIOLOGY
(2021)
Article
Multidisciplinary Sciences
Jamie B. Thompson, Katie E. Davis, Harry O. Dodd, Matthew A. Wills, Nicholas K. Priest
Summary: Although climate change affects diversification, its effects are inconsistent and less widespread than localized climate or species accumulation. This study focuses on highly speciose orchid subfamily and reveals that historic global cooling, not time or other climate factors, drives speciation in terrestrial orchids. With extensive data and analysis, the study demonstrates that global cooling played a significant role in contemporaneous diversification in all major orchid bioregions. This research provides valuable insights into the long-term impacts of global climate change on biodiversity.
PROCEEDINGS OF THE NATIONAL ACADEMY OF SCIENCES OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA
(2023)
Article
Multidisciplinary Sciences
Austin H. Patton, Luke J. Harmon, Maria del Rosario Castaneda, Hannah K. Frank, Colin M. Donihue, Anthony Herrel, Jonathan B. Losos
Summary: Research shows that neotropical Anolis lizards, originating in South America, colonized and radiated on Caribbean islands before returning to the mainland for further diversification. When mainland and island evolutionary radiations collide, extensive continental radiations can result from island ancestors, with incumbent and invading mainland clades achieving ecological and morphological disparity in different ways. In interactions between mainland radiation derived from island ancestors and incumbent mainland radiation, the island-derived clade tends to have an advantage.
PROCEEDINGS OF THE NATIONAL ACADEMY OF SCIENCES OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA
(2021)
Article
Biochemistry & Molecular Biology
Belinda Kahnt, Panagiotis Theodorou, Annegret Grimm-Seyfarth, Renske E. Onstein
Summary: Pollination and seed dispersal by animals are crucial for plant diversity and ecosystem functioning. This study examines the evolution of mutualistic behaviors in lizards, revealing the repeated evolution of flower visitation and seed dispersal in these species. The findings suggest a potential evolutionary mechanism behind the emergence of double mutualisms, with seed dispersal activity pre-dating flower visitation.
MOLECULAR PHYLOGENETICS AND EVOLUTION
(2023)
Article
Multidisciplinary Sciences
Bjorn T. Kopperud, Andrew F. Magee, Sebastian Hohna
Summary: This study examines the congruence class in phylogenies of exclusively extant taxa and concludes that strong directional trends in speciation and extinction rates are robustly inferred, while estimates of constant rates or gentle slopes are not reliable. The valid space for speciation rates is narrower and more constrained compared to extinction rates, providing further evidence that speciation rates can be estimated more accurately than extinction rates.
PROCEEDINGS OF THE NATIONAL ACADEMY OF SCIENCES OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA
(2023)
Article
Ecology
Nicholas M. A. Crouch, Joseph A. Tobias
Summary: Episodic pulses of morphological diversification are a prominent feature of evolutionary history. By analyzing global phylogenetic and morphological data for birds, we found that these pulses tend to occur independently and are associated with habitat niche stability. Our results highlight the potential of functional trait data sets in refining macroevolutionary models.
Article
Biology
R. Weppe, M. J. Orliac, G. Guinot, F. L. Condamine
Summary: The study explores the diversity dynamics of the mammal clade, Cainotherioidea, during the Eocene-Oligocene transition, revealing fluctuations in diversity, extinction events, and a burst of speciation. Adaptability to environmental changes played a key role in the survival and success of the clade, with speciation positively associated with temperature and continental fragmentation, while extinction synchronized with environmental changes. Interactions within the clade negatively affected diversification, and inter-clade competition potentially led to the decline of the group during the late Oligocene.
PROCEEDINGS OF THE ROYAL SOCIETY B-BIOLOGICAL SCIENCES
(2021)
Review
Geography, Physical
Valentin Bault, Catherine Cronier, Ninon Allaire, Claude Monnet
Summary: Utilizing the exceptional record of Devonian trilobites in North Africa, a new dataset was compiled to reveal their evolutionary history and subsequent extinction. The dataset covers 1171 trilobite occurrences from 168 different localities, showing a gradual diversification throughout the Early Devonian until a peak of diversity at the end of the Emsian, followed by a decline during the Eifelian. After the Frasnian events, a faunal change occurred, leading to a major faunal renewal and an increase in deeper water trilobites during the Famennian period. Comparisons with the biodiversity trends of local ammonoids were also made.
PALAEOGEOGRAPHY PALAEOCLIMATOLOGY PALAEOECOLOGY
(2021)
Article
Biochemistry & Molecular Biology
Manon Bucher, Fabien L. Condamine, Yang Luo, Menglin Wang, Thierry Bourgoin
Summary: This study provides a phylogenetic and dating analysis of Fulgoromorpha, covering 531 taxa and representing 80% of the currently described diversity in this group. The results reveal the unexpected paraphyly of Delphacidae, the sister relationship of Meenoplidae-Kinnaridae with other Fulgoroidea families, and the early branching node of Tettigometridae. Additionally, the study emphasizes the importance of high-quality molecular sequences and large sampling in analyzing the phylogeny of this group.
MOLECULAR PHYLOGENETICS AND EVOLUTION
(2023)
Article
Ecology
Stilianos Louca, L. Francisco Henao-Diaz, Matt Pennell
Summary: Numerous phylogenetic studies have reported the existence of a pervasive scaling relationship between the ages of extant eukaryotic clades and their estimated diversification rates, known as age-rate-scaling (ARS). This study explores the potential causes of ARS, including parameter non-identifiability, model inadequacy, biases in taxonomic practice, and sampling bias. The authors find that only sampling biases are likely to contribute to the observed ARS and develop methods to correct for this bias. They also confirm through simulations that sampling biases favoring higher diversification rates may explain the residual ARS. Overall, sampling biases appear to be a parsimonious and plausible explanation for the widely observed pattern of ARS.
Review
Ecology
Luke J. Harmon, Matthew W. Pennell, L. Francisco Henao-Diaz, Jonathan Rolland, Breanna N. Sipley, Josef C. Uyeda
Summary: Evolutionary rates are central in connecting micro- and macroevolution, with all types of rates following a similar scaling pattern with time. The highest rates measured over short time intervals suggest a large potential for variation that is underutilized by macroevolution. The ubiquitous scaling pattern of evolutionary rates may lead to unexpected results when comparing rates across different timescales.
ANNUAL REVIEW OF ECOLOGY, EVOLUTION, AND SYSTEMATICS, VOL 52, 2021
(2021)
Article
Evolutionary Biology
Tom Carruthers, Robert W. Scotland
Summary: Research using simulation and analysis has found that when substitution rates, speciation rates, and extinction rates vary, the benefits of increased character and taxon sampling on parameter estimation accuracy are limited. Methodological assumptions are more likely to be violated, and limitations in the information content of the data become more important in complex cases.
SYSTEMATIC BIOLOGY
(2021)
