To adapt or go extinct? The fate of megafaunal palm fruits under past global change

• Published in: Proceedings of the Royal Society. B, Biological sciences Vol. 285; no. 1880; p. 20180882
• Main Authors: Onstein, Renske E., Baker, William J., Couvreur, Thomas L. P., Faurby, Søren, Herrera-Alsina, Leonel, Svenning, Jens-Christian, Kissling, W. Daniel
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: England The Royal Society Publishing 13.06.2018; Royal Society, The; The Royal Society
• Edition: Royal Society (Great Britain)
• Subjects: Adaptation; Adaptation, Biological; Animals; Arecaceae - anatomy & histology; Arecaceae - physiology; Bats; Biodiversity; Biological Evolution; birds; Birds - physiology; Botanics; climate-change; dispersal; Dispersion; diversification; Ecology; Environmental Sciences; Evolution; Evolutionary Biology; Extinction; Extinction, Biological; Food Chain; forest fragmentation; Frugivores; frugivory; Fruit - anatomy & histology; Fruit - physiology; Fruits; global change; Global Changes; Habitat fragmentation; Life Sciences; Life Sciences & Biomedicine - Other Topics; Mammals - physiology; megafauna; Miljövetenskap; molecular phylogenies; Oscillations; Phylogeny; Quaternary; rates; Sea level; seed; Seed Dispersal; size; Species extinction; trait-dependent speciation; Variation; Vegetal Biology; biodiversity; extinction; global change; megafauna; frugivory; Global Change; Fauna; Evolution; Taxonomy and Systematics; Ecology; Frugivory; Biodiversity

Past global change may have forced animal-dispersed plants with megafaunal fruits to adapt or go extinct, but these processes have remained unexplored at broad spatio-temporal scales. Here, we combine phylogenetic, distributional and fruit size data for more than 2500 palm (Arecaceae) species in a t...