Revealing the factors that promote speciation

Abstract

What biological attributes of organisms promote speciation, and ultimately, species diversity? This question has a long history of interest, with proposed diversity promoters including attributes such as sexual selection, ecological specialism and dispersability. However, such ideas are difficult to test because the time–scale of processes involved is too great for direct human observation and experimentation. An increasingly powerful solution is to investigate diversity patterns among extant groups to infer the nature of processes operating during the evolution of those groups. This approach relies on the use of robust, phylogenetically based null models to overcome some of the problems inherent in observational inference. We illustrate this area by (i) discussing recent advances in identifying correlates of diversity among higher taxa, and (ii) proposing new methods for analysing patterns in species–level phylogenies, drawing examples from a wide range of organisms.