DOI: 10.5061/dryad.vq83bk3sj
title: Data from: Evolution of dispersal, habit, and pollination in Africa pushed Apocynaceae diversification after the Eocene-Oligocene climate transition

description: Apocynaceae (the dogbane and milkweed family) is one of the ten largest
 flowering plant families, with approximately 5,350 species and diverse
 morphology and ecology, ranging from large trees and lianas that are
 emblematic of tropical rainforests, to herbs in temperate grasslands, to
 succulents in dry, open landscapes, and to vines in a wide variety of
 habitats. Despite a specialized and conservative basic floral
 architecture, Apocynaceae are hyperdiverse in flower size, corolla shape,
 and especially derived floral morphological features. These are mainly
 associated with the development of corolline and/or staminal coronas and a
 spectrum of integration of floral structures culminating with the
 formation of a gynostegium and pollinaria—specialized pollen dispersal
 units. To date, no detailed analysis has been conducted to estimate the
 origin and diversification of this lineage in space and time. Here, we use
 the most comprehensive time-calibrated phylogeny of Apocynaceae, which
 includes approximately 20% of the species covering all major lineages, and
 information on species number and distributions obtained from the most
 up-to-date monograph of the family to investigate the biogeographical
 history of the lineage and its diversification dynamics. South America,
 Africa, and Southeast Asia (potentially including Oceania), were recovered
 as the most likely ancestral area of extant Apocynaceae diversity; this
 tropical climatic belt in the equatorial region retained the oldest extant
 lineages and these three tropical regions likely represent museums of the
 family. Africa was confirmed as the cradle of pollinia-bearing lineages
 and the main source of Apocynaceae intercontinental dispersals. We
 detected 12 shifts toward accelerated species diversification, of which 11
 were in the APSA clade (apocynoids, Periplocoideae, Secamonoideae, and
 Asclepiadoideae), eight of these in the pollinia-bearing lineages and six
 within Asclepiadoideae. Wind-dispersed comose seeds, climbing growth form,
 and pollinia appeared sequentially within the APSA clade and probably work
 synergistically in the occupation of drier and cooler habitats. Overall,
 we hypothesize that temporal patterns in diversification of Apocynaceae
 was mainly shaped by a sequence of morphological innovations that
 conferred higher capacity to disperse and establish in seasonal, unstable,
 and open habitats, which have expanded since the Eocene-Oligocene climate
 transition.
description: Phylogenetic data from Fishbein et al. (2018) Am J Bot doi:
 10.1002/ajb2.1067. Distribution data from Endress et
 al. (2018) “Apocynaceae,” in Flowering Plants. Eudicots. Apiales and
 Gentianales (except Rubiaceae), ed. J. W. Kadereit and V. Bittrich, in
 Families and Genera of Vascular Plants. Vol. 15, ed. K. Kubitzki (Berlin:
 Springer), 208–411. Analyses are processed in the R
 statistical framework; all scripts are accessible through this Dryad
 DOI.
description: The data file contains: 1) a metadata file
 "Readme_Nuerk_Apocynaceae.Biogeo.Div.txt" that details and
 defines the folders and files with variables, and allowable
 values,  2) three folders:  (a)
 <strong>DATA</strong>: the complete dataset (as CSV) and the
 phylogenetic tree (as NEWICK), plus a subfolder per analysis (BAMM,
 BioGeoBEARS, MiSSE) including analysis-specific input files derived
 from the complete dataset. Additionally, the original trees from Fishbein
 et al. 2018 are included.
 (b) <strong>RESULTS</strong>: main plots and tables
 produced in the analyses used to prepare the results (numbered according
 to Figs/Tabs).
 (c) <strong>RESULTS_full</strong>: contains a folder
 for each BAMM, MiSSE, and BioGeoBEARS analysis. Each folder contains plots
 (as pdf) and tables (tab-delimited text file), and the objects produced in
 R (as RDATA file; the workspace that contains functions and value objects
 created in R).