The tempo of avian diversification during the Quaternary |
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Authors: | Zink Robert M Klicka John Barber Brian R |
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Affiliation: | J. F. Bell Museum of Natural History, University of Minnesota, St Paul, MN 55108, USA. rzink@biosci.cbs.umn.edu |
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Abstract: | It is generally assumed that the Quaternary was a period of heightened diversification in temperate vertebrate organisms. Previous molecular systematics studies have challenged this assertion. We re-examined this issue in north temperate birds using log-lineage plots and distributions of sister-taxon distances. Log-lineage plots support earlier conclusions that avian diversification slowed during the Quaternary. To test plots of empirical sister-taxon distances we simulated three sets of phylogenies: constant speciation and extinction, a pulse of recent speciation, and a pulse of recent extinction. Previous opinions favour the model of recent speciation although our empirical dataset on 74 avian comparisons failed to reject a distribution derived from the constant and extinction models. Hence, it does not appear that the Quaternary was a period of exceptional rates of diversification, relative to the background rate. |
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