Ecological and biogeographic drivers of biodiversity cannot be resolved using clade age-richness data.

ABSTRACT: Estimates of evolutionary diversification rates - speciation and extinction - have been used extensively to explain global biodiversity patterns. Many studies have analyzed diversification rates derived from just two pieces of information: a clade's age and its extant species richness. This "age-richness rate" (ARR) estimator provides a convenient shortcut for comparative studies, but makes strong assumptions about the dynamics of species richness through time. Here we demonstrate that use of the ARR estimator in comparative studies is problematic on both theoretical and empirical grounds. We prove mathematically that ARR estimates are non-identifiable: there is no information in the data for a single clade that can distinguish a process with positive net diversification from one where net

SUBMITTER: Rabosky DL 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC8134473 | biostudies-literature | 2021 May

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature