Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences
Published June 5, 2019 | 17:01 EDT (Brief from the Royal Society)
Using the fossil record, researchers tested whether greater subsequent biodiversity would result from choosing random species in the past, a broad range of species in the past, or by choosing those species that were actively evolving into new species. Surprisingly, broad sampling performed worst and active speciators performed best. Broad samples included slowly diversifying lineages that never took off, while active speciators continued to succeed.
Canadian co-authors: Marc Cadotte, University of Toronto – mcadotte@utsc.utoronto.ca; Florent Mazel, University of British Columbia – fmazel@zoology.ubc.ca; Matthew Pennell, University of British Columbia – pennell@zoology.ubc.ca; Arne Mooers, Simon Fraser University – amooers@ sfu.ca
