Journal
JOURNAL OF MOLECULAR EVOLUTION
Volume 57, Issue -, Pages S13-S20Publisher
SPRINGER
DOI: 10.1007/s00239-003-0002-7
Keywords
Cambrian explosion; KT; generation time effect; adaptive radiation; substitution rate; morphological evolution
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Molecular data are ideal for exploring evolutionary history because of its universality, stochasticity, and abundance. These features provide a means of exploring the evolutionary history of all organisms (including those that do not tend to leave fossils), potentially within a statistical framework that allows testing of evolutionary hypotheses. However, the discrepancy between molecular and paleontological dates for three key explosive radiations inferred from the fossil record-the Cambrian explosion of animal phyla and the post-KT radiations of modern orders of mammals and birds-have led to a reexamination of the assumptions on which molecular dates are based. Could variation in the rate of molecular evolution, perhaps associated with explosive radiations, cause overestimation of diversification dates? Here I examine four hypothetical causes of fast molecular rates in explosive radiations-body size, morphological rate, speciation rate, and ecological diversification-using available empirical evidence on patterns of variation in rate of molecular evolution.
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