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Conserved ancestral tropical niche but different continental histories explain the latitudinal diversity gradient in brush-footed butterflies.

Published version
Peer-reviewed

Type

Article

Change log

Authors

Chazot, Nicolas 
Condamine, Fabien L  ORCID logo  https://orcid.org/0000-0003-1673-9910
Dudas, Gytis 
Peña, Carlos 
Kodandaramaiah, Ullasa  ORCID logo  https://orcid.org/0000-0002-1564-1738

Abstract

The global increase in species richness toward the tropics across continents and taxonomic groups, referred to as the latitudinal diversity gradient, stimulated the formulation of many hypotheses to explain the underlying mechanisms of this pattern. We evaluate several of these hypotheses to explain spatial diversity patterns in a butterfly family, the Nymphalidae, by assessing the contributions of speciation, extinction, and dispersal, and also the extent to which these processes differ among regions at the same latitude. We generate a time-calibrated phylogeny containing 2,866 nymphalid species (~45% of extant diversity). Neither speciation nor extinction rate variations consistently explain the latitudinal diversity gradient among regions because temporal diversification dynamics differ greatly across longitude. The Neotropical diversity results from low extinction rates, not high speciation rates, and biotic interchanges with other regions are rare. Southeast Asia is also characterized by a low speciation rate but, unlike the Neotropics, is the main source of dispersal events through time. Our results suggest that global climate change throughout the Cenozoic, combined with tropical niche conservatism, played a major role in generating the modern latitudinal diversity gradient of nymphalid butterflies.

Description

Keywords

Animal Distribution, Animals, Biodiversity, Butterflies, Extinction, Biological, Genes, Insect, Genetic Speciation, Geography, Phylogeny, Spatio-Temporal Analysis, Tropical Climate

Journal Title

Nat Commun

Conference Name

Journal ISSN

2041-1723
2041-1723

Volume Title

12

Publisher

Springer Science and Business Media LLC