Plant speciation in the Quaternary
Date
12/01/2022Keywords
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Abstract
Background : There are conflicting views between palaeobotanists and plant systematists / evolutionary biologists regarding the occurrence of plant speciation in the Quaternary. Palaeobotanists advocate that Quaternary speciation was rare despite opposing molecular phylogenetic evidence, the extent of which appears underappreciated. Aims : To document, describe and discuss evidence for Quaternary plant speciation across different geographical regions based on dated molecular phylogenies and related studies. Methods : From a search of the literature we compiled a selection mainly of dated molecular phylogenies from all continents (except Antarctica) and from all major climate zones. Results : Molecular phylogenetic analyses and related studies show that Quaternary plant speciation and radiations occurred frequently and that in many instances Quaternary climatic oscillations were likely important drivers of them. In all geographical regions studied Quaternary plant speciation and radiations were particularly evident in mountainous areas and arid regions, and were also prevalent on all major oceanic archipelagos. Conclusions : Based on our survey of the molecular phylogenetic and related literature we propose there is now overwhelming evidence that plant speciation and radiations were ubiquitous during the Quaternary. We therefore reject the view of palaeobotanists that plant speciation was rare during this period and briefly discuss possible reasons for this discrepancy.
Citation
Kadereita , J W & Abbott , R 2022 , ' Plant speciation in the Quaternary ' , Plant Ecology & Diversity , vol. 14 , no. 3-4 , pp. 105-142 . https://doi.org/10.1080/17550874.2021.2012849
Publication
Plant Ecology & Diversity
Status
Peer reviewed
ISSN
1755-0874Type
Journal item
Rights
Copyright © 2022 The Author(s). Published by Informa UK Limited, trading as Taylor & Francis Group. This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/bync-nd/4.0/), which permits non-commercial re-use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited, and is not altered, transformed, or built upon in any way.
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