Evolutionary biologists have often suggested that ecology is important in speciation, in that
natural selection may drive adaptive divergence between lineages that inhabit different …

Phylogenetic niche conservatism (PNC) typically refers to the tendency of closely related
species to be more similar to each other in terms of niche than they are to more distant …

One of the most important shifts in evolutionary biology in the past 50 years is an increased
recognition of sluggish evolution and failures to adapt, which seem paradoxical in view of …

The tenet that ecological opportunity drives adaptive diversification has been central to
theories of speciation since Darwin, yet no widely accepted definition or mechanistic …

Speciation is frequently initiated but rarely completed, a phenomenon hypothesized to arise
due to the failure of nascent lineages to persist. Although a failure to persist often has …

Abstract Since Darwin published the “Origin,” great progress has been made in our
understanding of speciation mechanisms. The early investigations by Mayr and Dobzhansky …

Explanations for taxonomic diversity in a particular clade often implicate evolutionary
innovations, possessed by members of the clade, that are thought to have favoured …

Recognizing the importance of directional environmental change in driving extinctions in
once-common species raises a profound puzzle. On the one hand, as ecologists we know …

Speciation research during the last several decades has confirmed that natural selection
frequently drives the generation of new species. But how does this process generally unfold …

The origin of biological diversity, via the formation of new species, can be inextricably linked
to adaptation to the ecological environment. Specifically, ecological processes are central to …