Age-dependent extinction and the neutral theory of biodiversity.

ABSTRACT: Red Queen (RQ) theory states that adaptation does not protect species from extinction because their competitors are continually adapting alongside them. RQ was founded on the apparent independence of extinction risk and fossil taxon age, but analytical developments have since demonstrated that age-dependent extinction is widespread, usually most intense among young species. Here, we develop ecological neutral theory as a general framework for modeling fossil species survivorship under incomplete sampling. We show that it provides an excellent fit to a high-resolution dataset of species durations for Paleozoic zooplankton and more broadly can account for age-dependent extinction seen throughout the fossil record. Unlike widely used alternative models, the neutral model has parameters with b

SUBMITTER: Saulsbury JG 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC10769858 | biostudies-literature | 2024 Jan

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature