Phylogeny and Palaeobiodiversity

Abstract

The development of the phylogenetic diversity index now allows, at least in theory, a close integration of of phylogeny and paleobiodiversity, but in practice, this unification is only incipient. It has been hampered by the lack of generally-applicable methods to determine the actual appearance dates of taxa (rather than the younger dates at which they become visible in the fossil record). Most recent works on producing timetrees have emphasized molecular data, a suboptimal situation because the most direct evidence of the chronology of taxonomic diversification is the fossil record, which is now under-exploited. Fortunately, progress is being made in using the fossil record to produce timetrees. Two complementary approaches have been pursued: total evidence dating (based on molecular and morphological data), and the use of birth and death models. Keywords: phylogeny, timetrees, birth and death processes, total evidence dating, molecular dating