Rampal Etienne

Aug 29, 2024 | biorxiv.org | Rampal Etienne |David Murrell |Alex Pigot |Bouwe Rutger Reijenga

AbstractEcological communities are assembled over time, suggesting a crucial role for evolutionary history in determining the diversity of species assemblages. Indeed, differences in the build-up of sympatric diversity across space, time and clades may reflect variation in the historical patterns of speciation and thus time available for colonisation.

Aug 22, 2024 | nature.com | Lizzie Roeble |Patrick Weigelt |Holger Kreft |Matthew L. Knope |Jennifer R. Mandel |Rampal Etienne

AbstractThe megadiverse plant family Asteraceae forms an iconic component of island floras including many spectacular radiations, but a global picture of its insular diversity is lacking. Here, we uncover the global biogeographical and evolutionary patterns of Asteraceae on islands to reveal the magnitude and potential causes of their evolutionary success.

Aug 6, 2024 | biorxiv.org | Tianjian Qin |Luis Valente |Rampal Etienne |Koen van Benthem

AbstractSpecies diversification is characterized by speciation and extinction, the rates of which can, under some assumptions, be estimated from time-calibrated phylogenies. However, maximum likelihood estimation methods (MLE) for inferring rates are limited to simpler models and can show bias, particularly in small phylogenies.

Jan 29, 2024 | biorxiv.org | Thijs Janzen |Rampal Etienne

AbstractPhylogenetic trees are believed to contain a wealth of information on diversification processes. Comparing phylogenetic trees is not straightforward due to their high dimensionality. Researchers have therefore defined a wide range of one-dimensional summary statistics. However, it remains unexplored to what extent these summary statistics cover the same underlying information and what summary statistics best explain observed variation across phylogenies.

Nov 13, 2023 | biorxiv.org | Luis Valente |Rampal Etienne |Tianjian Qin

AbstractSlowdowns in lineage accumulation are often observed in phylogenies of extant species. One explanation for this is the presence of ecological limits to diversity and hence to diversification.