Department of Biology, University of Hawaii, Hilo, Hilo, HI 96720, USA.
Department of Geosciences and Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, University of Connecticut, Storrs, CT 06269, USA.
Science. 2020 Feb 28;367(6481):1035-1038. doi: 10.1126/science.aax6398.
Ecological differentiation is correlated with taxonomic diversity in many clades, and ecological divergence is often assumed to be a cause and/or consequence of high speciation rate. However, an analysis of 30,074 genera of living marine animals and 19,992 genera of fossil marine animals indicates that greater ecological differentiation in the modern oceans is actually associated with lower rates of origination over evolutionary time. Ecologically differentiated clades became taxonomically diverse over time because they were better buffered against extinction, particularly during mass extinctions, which primarily affected genus-rich, ecologically homogeneous clades. The relationship between ecological differentiation and taxonomic richness was weak early in the evolution of animals but has strengthened over geological time as successive extinction events reshaped the marine fauna.
生态分化与许多类群的分类多样性相关，生态分歧通常被认为是高物种形成率的原因和/或结果。然而，对 30074 个现代海洋生物属和 19992 个化石海洋生物属的分析表明，现代海洋中更大的生态分化实际上与进化时间内较低的起源率相关。随着时间的推移，生态分化的类群在分类上变得更加多样化，因为它们在灭绝方面得到了更好的缓冲，特别是在大灭绝期间，大灭绝主要影响了属丰富、生态同质化的类群。在动物进化的早期，生态分化与分类丰富度之间的关系较弱，但随着连续的灭绝事件重塑了海洋动物群，这种关系在地质时间上得到了加强。
