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Do species factories exist? Detecting exceptional patterns of evolution in the mammalian fossil record.

Authors :
Toivonen J
Fortelius M
Žliobaitė I
Source :
Proceedings. Biological sciences [Proc Biol Sci] 2022 Apr 13; Vol. 289 (1972), pp. 20212294. Date of Electronic Publication: 2022 Apr 06.
Publication Year :
2022

Abstract

A species factory refers to the source that gives rise to an exceptionally large number of species. However, what is it exactly: a place, a time or a combination of places, times and environmental conditions, remains unclear. Here we search for species factories computationally, for which we develop statistical approaches to detect origination, extinction and sorting hotspots in space and time in the fossil record. Using data on European Late Cenozoic mammals, we analyse where, how and how often species factories occur, and how they potentially relate to the dynamics of environmental conditions. We find that in the Early Miocene origination hotspots tend to be located in areas with relatively low estimated net primary productivity. Our pilot study shows that species first occurring in origination hotspots tend to have a longer average longevity and a larger geographical range than other species, thus emphasizing the evolutionary importance of the species factories.

Details

Language :
English
ISSN :
1471-2954
Volume :
289
Issue :
1972
Database :
MEDLINE
Journal :
Proceedings. Biological sciences
Publication Type :
Academic Journal
Accession number :
35382595
Full Text :
https://doi.org/10.1098/rspb.2021.2294