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Rapid Diversification of a Species-Rich Genus of Neotropical Rain Forest Trees
James E. Richardson,12R.
Toby Pennington,1*Terence D. Pennington,3Peter M. Hollingsworth1
Species richness in the tropics has been attributed to the gradual
accumulation of species over a long geological period instable
equatorial climates or, conversely, to speciation in responseto late
Tertiary geological events and unstable Pleistocene climates.DNA
sequence data are consistent with recent diversification inInga, a species-rich neotropical tree genus. We estimate
thatspeciation was concentrated in the past 10 million years, withmany species arising as recently as 2 million years ago. Thiscoincides
with the more recent major uplifts of the Andes, thebridging of the
Isthmus of Panama, and Quaternary glacial cycles.Inga may
be representative of other species-rich neotropical generawith rapid
growth and reproduction, which contribute substantiallyto species
numbers in the world's most diverse flora.
1 Royal Botanic Garden Edinburgh, 20a
Inverleith Row, Edinburgh EH3 5LR, UK.
2 Department
of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, University of California at Santa
Cruz, Santa Cruz, CA 95064, USA.
3 Royal Botanic
Gardens, Kew, Richmond, Surrey TW9 3AB, UK.
*
To whom correspondence should be addressed. E-mail:
t.pennington{at}rbge.org.uk
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PERSPECTIVES
Eldredge Bermingham and Christopher Dick (21 September 2001) Science293 (5538), 2214.
[DOI: 10.1126/science.1065310] |Summary »|Full Text »|PDF »
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