Evolutionary rates and species diversity in flowering plants
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Updated: Oct 7, 2026

Field Experiments of Pollination Ecology: The Case of Lycoris sanguinea var. sanguinea
Published on: November 25, 2016
T G Barraclough1, V Savolainen
1Department of Biology and NERC Centre for Population Biology, Imperial College at Silwood Park, Ascot, Berkshire, United Kingdom. t.barraclough@ic.ac.uk
Abstract:
Genetic change is a necessary component of speciation, but the relationship between rates of speciation and molecular evolution remains unclear. We use recent phylogenetic data to demonstrate a positive relationship between species numbers and the rate of neutral molecular evolution in flowering plants (in both plastid and nuclear genes). Rates of protein and morphological evolution also correlate with the neutral substitution rate, but not with species numbers. Our findings reveal a link between the rate of neutral molecular change within populations and the evolution of species diversity.
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