Macroevolution Journal Club: Interactions within and between clades shaped the diversification of terrestrial carnivores

Friday, January 12th, we will discuss a recent paper by Pires et al .(2017): Interactions within and between clades shaped the diversification of terrestrial carnivores

 

Join us!

Abstract:

A longstanding debate in evolutionary biology and paleontology is whether ecological interactions such as competition impose diversity dependence on speciation and extinction rates. Here, we analyze the fossil record of terrestrial mammalian carnivores in North America and Eurasia using a Bayesian framework to assess whether their diversity dynamics were affected by diversity dependence within and between families (12 in Eurasia, 10 in North America). We found eight instances of within-clade diversity dependence suppressing speciation rates and detected between-clade effects increasing extinction rates in six instances. Diversity dependence often involved lineages that migrated between continents and we found that speciation was more respon- sive to diversity changes within the clade, whereas extinction responded to diversity of taxa in other clades. The analysis of the fossil  record of Carnivora suggests that interactions within and between clades are associated with different speciation and extinction regimes, opening room for a broader theory of diversity dependence.

Published Jan. 11, 2018 11:54 AM - Last modified Jan. 11, 2018 11:54 AM