Vincent S. F. T. Merckx, Rimi Repin, Bakhtiar Effendi Yahya, Rory A. Dow, Peter Hovenkamp, Suzana Sabran, Suman Neupane, Arthur Y. C. Chung, Michael Stech, Constantijn B. Mennes, Matsain M Buang, Alim Biun, Jan van Tol, Maipul Spait, Richard J Majapun, Anati Sawang, Kasper P. Hendriks, Jamili Nais, Eyen Khoo, Frank R. Stokvis, Daniel C. Thomas, Frida A A Feijen, John B Sugau, Hans R. Feijen, Hugo J. de Boer, Maklarin Lakim, Sukaibin Sumail, Frederic Lens, Peter Koomen, Luis N. Morgado, Ping-Ping Chen, Cobi Feijen-van Soest, Monica Suleiman, Katja T. C. A. Peijnenburg, Nico Nieser, Heike Kappes, Leontine E. Becking, Barbara Gravendeel, Aqilah Afendy, Rachel Schwallier, József Geml, Menno Schilthuizen, Joan T Pereira, René Geurts, Paul Imbun, Nicolien Sol, Isa B. Ipor, Nivaarani Arumugam, Harry Smit, Phyau-Soon Shim, Homathevi Rahman, Kevin K. Beentjes, Fred Y Y Tuh, Merlijn Jocque, Steven Janssens, Evolutionary Biology (IBED, FNWI), and Etienne group
Tropical mountains are hot spots of biodiversity and endemism,but the evolutionary origins of their unique biotas are poorlyunderstood. In varying degrees, local and regional extinction,long-distance colonization, and local recruitment may all contribute to the exceptional character of these communities. Also, it isdebated whether mountain endemics mostly originate from locallowland taxa, or from lineages that reach the mountain by long-range dispersal from cool localities elsewhere. Here we investigatethe evolutionary routes to endemism by sampling an entire tropical mountain biota on the 4,095-metre-high Mount Kinabalu inSabah, East Malaysia. We discover that most of its unique biodiversity is younger than the mountain itself (6 million years), andcomprises a mix of immigrant pre-adapted lineages and descendants from local lowland ancestors, although substantial shiftsfrom lower to higher vegetation zones in this latter group wererare. These insights could improve forecasts of the likelihood ofextinction and ‘evolutionary rescue in montane biodiversity hotspots under climate change scenarios.