Narayani Barve

1 Introduction The uneven distribution of species across the globe is one of the oldest observed patterns in biology (Lomolino 2004). Many hypotheses attempt to explain higher diversity in the tropics through ecological or evolutionary mechanisms (reviewed in Fine 2015). Most ecological hypotheses rely on contemporary climate or net primary productivity to explain heightened species diversity in the tropics (Wright 1983; O'Brien 1998).

PRIMARY RESEARCH ARTICLE Daijiang Li Corresponding Author daijianglee@gmail.com orcid.org/https://orcid.org/0000-0002-0925-3421 Florida Museum of Natural History, University of Florida, Gainesville, FL, USA Department of Biological Sciences, Louisiana State University, Baton Rouge, LA, USA Center for Computation & Technology, Louisiana State University, Baton Rouge, LA, USA Corresponding authors Email: daijianglee@gmail.com Email: rguralnick@flmnh.ufl.edu Search for more papers by this author...