Dinosaurs reveal the geographical signature of an evolutionary radiation

O’Donovan, C., Meade, A. ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-7095-7711 and Venditti, C. ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-6776-2355 (2018) Dinosaurs reveal the geographical signature of an evolutionary radiation. Nature Ecology & Evolution, 2 (3). pp. 452-458. ISSN 2397-334X doi: 10.1038/s41559-017-0454-6

Abstract/Summary

Dinosaurs dominated terrestrial ecosystems across the globe for over 100 million years and provide a classic example of an evolutionary radiation. However, little is known about how these animals radiated geographically to become globally distributed. Here, we use a biogeographical model to reconstruct the dinosaurs’ ancestral locations, revealing the spatial mechanisms that underpinned this 170-million-year-long radiation. We find that dinosaurs spread rapidly initially, followed by a significant continuous and gradual reduction in their speed of movement towards the Cretaceous/Tertiary boundary (66 million years ago). This suggests that the predominant mode of dinosaur speciation changed through time with speciation originally largely driven by geographical isolation—when dinosaurs speciated more, they moved further. This was gradually replaced by increasing levels of sympatric speciation (species taking advantage of ecological opportunities within their existing environment) as terrestrial space became a limiting factor. Our results uncover the geographical signature of an evolutionary radiation.

Item Type	Article
URI	https://reading-clone.eprints-hosting.org/id/eprint/75344
Item Type	Article
Refereed	Yes
Divisions	Life Sciences > School of Biological Sciences > Ecology and Evolutionary Biology
Publisher	Nature
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