Global phylogenetic structure of the hyperdiverse ant genusPheidolereveals the repeated evolution of macroecological patterns

Authors:
Open Access
Publisher website
Google Scholar
Abstract
Adaptive radiations are of particular interest owing to what they reveal about the ecological and evolutionary regulation of biodiversity. This applies to localized island radiations such as Darwin's finches, and also to rapid radiations occurring on a global scale. Here we analyse the macroevolution and macroecology ofPheidole,a famously hyperdiverse and ecologically dominant ant genus. We generate and analyse four novel datasets: (i) a robust global phylogeny including 285Pheidolespecies, (ii) a global database on regionalPheidolerichness in 365 political areas summarizing over 97 000 individual records from more than 6500 studies, (iii) a global database ofPheidolerichness from 3796 local communities and (iv) a database ofPheidolebody sizes across species. Analysis of the potential climate drivers of richness revealed that the patterns are statistically very similar across different biogeographic regions, with both regional and local richness associated with the same coefficients of temperature and precipitation. This similarity occurs even though phylogenetic analysis shows thatPheidolereached dominance in communities through serial localized radiations into different biomes within different continents and islands.Pheidolebody size distributions have likewise converged across geographical regions. We propose these cases of convergence indicate that the global radiation ofPheidoleis structured by deterministic factors regulating diversification and diversity.

This publication has 46 references indexed in Scilit: