Advanced search
Start date
Betweenand
Related content
(Reference retrieved automatically from Web of Science through information on FAPESP grant and its corresponding number as mentioned in the publication by the authors.)

How the Red Queen Drives Terrestrial Mammals to Extinction

Full text
Author(s):
Quental, Tiago B. [1] ; Marshall, Charles R. [2]
Total Authors: 2
Affiliation:
[1] Univ Sao Paulo, Dept Ecol, Sao Paulo - Brazil
[2] Univ Calif Berkeley, Museum Paleontol, Berkeley, CA 94720 - USA
Total Affiliations: 2
Document type: Journal article
Source: Science; v. 341, n. 6143, p. 290-292, JUL 19 2013.
Web of Science Citations: 55
Abstract

Most species disappear by the processes of background extinction, yet those processes are poorly understood. We analyzed the evolutionary dynamics of 19 Cenozoic terrestrial mammalian clades with rich fossil records that are now fully extinct or in diversity decline. We find their diversity loss was not just a consequence of ``gamblers ruin{''} but resulted from the evolutionary loss to the Red Queen, a failure to keep pace with a deteriorating environment. Diversity loss is driven equally by both depressed origination rates and elevated extinction rates. Although we find diversity-dependent origination and extinction rates, the diversity of each clade only transiently equaled the implied equilibrium diversity. Thus, the processes that drove diversity loss in terrestrial mammal clades were fundamentally nonequilibrial and overwhelmed diversity-dependent processes. (AU)

FAPESP's process: 12/04072-3 - The role of extinction and speciation rates, and the effect of different levels of biological organization on the origin and maintenance of biodiversity
Grantee:Tiago Bosisio Quental
Support Opportunities: Research Grants - Young Investigators Grants