Explaining large-scale patterns of vertebrate diversity

Wiens, John J.

doi:10.1098/rsbl.2015.0506

Cited by 62 publications

(74 citation statements)

References 16 publications

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“…For example, recent studies have found significant relationships between increased rates of species diversification and occurrence in tropical regions (e.g., Rolland et al. 2014), occurrence on land instead of in water or in marine environments (e.g., Wiens 2015a,b), the presence of defense mutualisms in plants (Weber and Agrawal 2014), and the presence of herbivory in insects (e.g., Wiens et al. 2015).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

What explains patterns of species richness? The relative importance of climatic‐niche evolution, morphological evolution, and ecological limits in salamanders

Kozak

Wiens

2016

Ecology and Evolution

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A major goal of evolutionary biology and ecology is to understand why species richness varies among clades. Previous studies have suggested that variation in richness among clades might be related to variation in rates of morphological evolution among clades (e.g., body size and shape). Other studies have suggested that richness patterns might be related to variation in rates of climatic‐niche evolution. However, few studies, if any, have tested the relative importance of these variables in explaining patterns of richness among clades. Here, we test their relative importance among major clades of Plethodontidae, the most species‐rich family of salamanders. Earlier studies have suggested that climatic‐niche evolution explains patterns of diversification among plethodontid clades, whereas rates of morphological evolution do not. A subsequent study stated that rates of morphological evolution instead explained patterns of species richness among plethodontid clades (along with “ecological limits” on richness of clades, leading to saturation of clades with species, given limited resources). However, they did not consider climatic‐niche evolution. Using phylogenetic multiple regression, we show that rates of climatic‐niche evolution explain most variation in richness among plethodontid clades, whereas rates of morphological evolution do not. We find little evidence that ecological limits explain patterns of richness among plethodontid clades. We also test whether rates of morphological and climatic‐niche evolution are correlated, and find that they are not. Overall, our results help explain richness patterns in a major amphibian group and provide possibly the first test of the relative importance of climatic niches and morphological evolution in explaining diversity patterns.

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Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

What explains patterns of species richness? The relative importance of climatic‐niche evolution, morphological evolution, and ecological limits in salamanders

Kozak

Wiens

2016

Ecology and Evolution

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“…In general, differences in species richness can be associated with heterogeneity in the rates of species diversification, but the drivers of such rate heterogeneity remain poorly explored for many groups of species. As exemplified by well-known radiations [7][8][9][10][11], high species diversity is often mirrored by high levels of eco-morphological variation, suggesting that species diversification is linked to evolutionary change [12 -14]. However, little is known about the ubiquity of the coupling between ecological divergence, phenotypic evolution and species diversification.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Rates of ecological divergence and body size evolution are correlated with species diversification in scaly tree ferns

Ramírez‐Barahona¹,

Barrera‐Redondo²,

Eguiarte³

2016

Proc. R. Soc. B.

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ResearchCite this article: Ramírez-Barahona S, Barrera-Redondo J, Eguiarte LE. 2016 Rates of ecological divergence and body size evolution are correlated with species diversification in scaly tree ferns. Proc. R. Soc. Variation in species richness across regions and between different groups of organisms is a major feature of evolution. Several factors have been proposed to explain these differences, including heterogeneity in the rates of species diversification and the age of clades. It has been frequently assumed that rapid rates of diversification are coupled to high rates of ecological and morphological evolution, leading to a prediction that remains poorly explored for most species: the positive association between ecological niche divergence, morphological evolution and species diversification. We combined a time-calibrated phylogeny with distribution, ecological and body size data for scaly tree ferns (Cyatheaceae) to test whether rates of species diversification are predicted by the rates at which clades have evolved distinct ecological niches and body sizes. We found that rates of species diversification are positively correlated with rates of ecological and morphological evolution, with rapidly diversifying clades also showing rapidly evolving ecological niches and body sizes. Our results show that rapid diversification of scaly tree ferns is associated with the evolution of species with comparable morphologies that diversified into similar, yet distinct, environments. This suggests parallel evolutionary pathways opening in different tropical regions whenever ecological and geographical opportunities arise. Accordingly, rates of ecological niche and body size evolution are relevant to explain the current patterns of species richness in this 'ancient' fern lineage across the tropics.

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“…The ages of the Vertebrata origin estimated by Hedges and Kumar (2009) are older than those estimated by Wiens (2015). These time trees differ in the crown age of Vertebrata by about 100 My.…”

Section: Timing Of Diversificationmentioning

confidence: 72%

“…A complete figure including all species analysed in this study is found in Supplementary Figure S1. (B) A timetree representing temporal patterns of diversification in major lineages of vertebrates. Topology and divergence dates are consensus estimates derived from Kumar (2009) andWiens (2015). Confidence intervals among vertebrate clades are found in each branch following estimates from Blair and Hedges (2005) and Kumar and Hedges (1998).…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Origin of a major infectious disease in vertebrates: The timing ofCryptosporidiumevolution and its hosts

García–R

Hayman

2016

Parasitology

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Protozoan parasites of the genus Cryptosporidium infect all vertebrate groups and display some host specificity in their infections. It is therefore possible to assume that Cryptosporidium parasites evolved intimately aside with vertebrate lineages. Here we propose a scenario of Cryptosporidium-Vertebrata coevolution testing the hypothesis that the origin of Cryptosporidium parasites follows that of the origin of modern vertebrates. We use calibrated molecular clocks and cophylogeny analyses to provide and compare age estimates and patterns of association between these clades. Our study provides strong support for the evolution of parasitism of Cryptosporidium with the rise of the vertebrates about 600 million years ago (Mya). Interestingly, periods of increased diversification in Cryptosporidium coincides with diversification of crown mammalian and avian orders after the Cretaceous-Palaeogene (K-Pg) boundary, suggesting that adaptive radiation to new mammalian and avian hosts triggered the diversification of this parasite lineage. Despite evidence for ongoing host shifts we also found significant correlation between protozoan parasites and vertebrate hosts trees in the cophylogenetic analysis. These results help us to understand the underlying macroevolutionary mechanisms driving evolution in Cryptosporidium and may have important implications for the ecology, dynamics and epidemiology of cryptosporidiosis disease in humans and other animals.

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Explaining large-scale patterns of vertebrate diversity

Cited by 62 publications

References 16 publications

What explains patterns of species richness? The relative importance of climatic‐niche evolution, morphological evolution, and ecological limits in salamanders

What explains patterns of species richness? The relative importance of climatic‐niche evolution, morphological evolution, and ecological limits in salamanders

Rates of ecological divergence and body size evolution are correlated with species diversification in scaly tree ferns

Origin of a major infectious disease in vertebrates: The timing ofCryptosporidiumevolution and its hosts

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