Elevated Extinction Rates as a Trigger for Diversification Rate Shifts: Early Amniotes as a Case Study.

ABSTRACT: Tree shape analyses are frequently used to infer the location of shifts in diversification rate within the Tree of Life. Many studies have supported a causal relationship between shifts and temporally coincident events such as the evolution of "key innovations". However, the evidence for such relationships is circumstantial. We investigated patterns of diversification during the early evolution of Amniota from the Carboniferous to the Triassic, subjecting a new supertree to analyses of tree balance in order to infer the timing and location of diversification shifts. We investigated how uneven origination and extinction rates drive diversification shifts, and use two case studies (herbivory and an aquatic lifestyle) to examine whether shifts tend to be contemporaneous with evolutionary nove

SUBMITTER: Brocklehurst N 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC4655484 | biostudies-literature | 2015 Nov

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature