Open AccessEvidence of constant diversification punctuated by a mass extinction in the African cycads
Author(s) -
Yessoufou Kowiyou,
Bamigboye Samuel O.,
Daru Barnabas H.,
Bank Michelle
Publication year - 2014
Publication title -
ecology and evolution
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.17
H-Index - 63
ISSN - 2045-7758
DOI - 10.1002/ece3.880
Subject(s) - extinction event , extinction (optical mineralogy) , extant taxon , biology , cycad , monophyly , lineage (genetic) , ecology , pleistocene , diversification (marketing strategy) , evolutionary biology , adaptation (eye) , paleontology , phylogenetics , biological dispersal , clade , demography , biochemistry , marketing , sociology , gene , business , neuroscience , population
The recent evidence that extant cycads are not living fossils triggered a renewed search for a better understanding of their evolutionary history. In this study, we investigated the evolutionary diversification history of the genus Encephalartos , a monophyletic cycad endemic to Africa. We found an antisigmoidal pattern with a plateau and punctual explosive radiation. This pattern is typical of a constant radiation with mass extinction. The rate shift that we found may therefore be a result of a rapid recolonization of niches that have been emptied owing to mass extinction. Because the explosive radiation occurred during the transition Pliocene–Pleistocene, we argued that the processes might have been climatically mediated.