Business

Diversification (marketing strategy)

Cretaceous

Biology

Evolutionary biology

Clade

Gene

Marketing

Paleontology

Biochemistry

Monophyly

Molecular clock

Phylogenetics

Taxon

Ecology

Asteraceae

Phylogenetic tree

Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences

The sunflower family, Asteraceae, comprises 10% of all flowering plant species and displays an incredible diversity of form. Asteraceae are clearly monophyletic, yet resolving phylogenetic relationships within the family has proven difficult, hindering our ability to understand its origin and diversification. Recent molecular clock dating has suggested a Cretaceous origin, but the lack of deep sampling of many genes and representative taxa from across the family has impeded the resolution of migration routes and diversifications that led to its global distribution and tremendous diversity. Here we use genomic data from 256 terminals to estimate evolutionary relationships, timing of diversification(s), and biogeographic patterns. Our study places the origin of Asteraceae at ∼83 MYA in the late Cretaceous and reveals that the family underwent a series of explosive radiations during the Eocene which were accompanied by accelerations in diversification rates. The lineages that gave rise to nearly 95% of extant sp...

A fully resolved backbone phylogeny reveals numerous dispersals and explosive diversifications throughout the history of Asteraceae