Conserving evolutionary history does not result in greater diversity over geological time scales.

ABSTRACT: Alternative prioritization strategies have been proposed to safeguard biodiversity over macroevolutionary time scales. The first prioritizes the most distantly related species-maximizing phylogenetic diversity (PD)-in the hopes of capturing at least some lineages that will successfully diversify into the future. The second prioritizes lineages that are currently speciating, in the hopes that successful lineages will continue to generate species into the future. These contrasting schemes also map onto contrasting predictions about the role of slow diversifiers in the production of biodiversity over palaeontological time scales. We consider the performance of the two schemes across 10 dated species-level palaeo-phylogenetic trees ranging from Foraminifera to dinosaurs. We find that prioritiz

SUBMITTER: Cantalapiedra JL 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC6571466 | biostudies-literature | 2019 Jun

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature