Hummingbird pollination and the diversification of angiosperms: an old and successful association in Gesneriaceae.

ABSTRACT: The effects of specific functional groups of pollinators in the diversification of angiosperms are still to be elucidated. We investigated whether the pollination shifts or the specific association with hummingbirds affected the diversification of a highly diverse angiosperm lineage in the Neotropics. We reconstructed a phylogeny of 583 species from the Gesneriaceae family and detected diversification shifts through time, inferred the timing and amount of transitions among pollinator functional groups, and tested the association between hummingbird pollination and speciation and extinction rates. We identified a high frequency of pollinator transitions, including reversals to insect pollination. Diversification rates of the group increased through time since 25 Ma, coinciding with the evol

SUBMITTER: Serrano-Serrano ML 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC5394660 | biostudies-literature | 2017 Apr

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature