Macroevolutionary dynamics and predictors of tropical rain forest plant diversity.
Diversification rates of Annonaceae vary across tropical regions, with some areas experiencing significant increases over 100 million years, influenced by regional environmental factors.
- Why it matters: Understanding the drivers of tropical rain forest plant diversity is crucial because it remains poorly understood despite the biome's high species richness, hindering conservation and evolutionary insights.
- What they did: A dated phylogenomic tree of 2045 Annonaceae species was constructed, covering approximately 100 million years of evolution to analyze diversification dynamics across regions.
- The result: Regional environmental factors such as sea level and paleotemperature significantly influenced diversification patterns, revealing that deep-time environmental trajectories shaped tropical plant diversity.