Extinction in Phylogenetics and Biogeography: From Timetrees to Patterns of Biotic Assemblage.

ABSTRACT: Global climate change and its impact on biodiversity levels have made extinction a relevant topic in biological research. Yet, until recently, extinction has received less attention in macroevolutionary studies than speciation; the reason is the difficulty to infer an event that actually eliminates rather than creates new taxa. For example, in biogeography, extinction has often been seen as noise, introducing homoplasy in biogeographic relationships, rather than a pattern-generating process. The molecular revolution and the possibility to integrate time into phylogenetic reconstructions have allowed studying extinction under different perspectives. Here, we review phylogenetic (temporal) and biogeographic (spatial) approaches to the inference of extinction and the challenges this process p

SUBMITTER: Sanmartin I 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC4802293 | biostudies-literature | 2016

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature