DOI: 10.5061/dryad.859nv4m
title: Data from: Evolution of the latitudinal gradient in the hyperdiverse ant genus Pheidole

description: Aim: The latitudinal diversity gradient is the dominant pattern of life on
 Earth, but a consensus understanding of its origins has remained elusive.
 The analysis of recently diverged, hyper-rich invertebrate groups provides
 an opportunity to investigate latitudinal patterns with the statistical
 power of large trees while minimizing potentially confounding variation in
 ecology and history. Here, we synthesize global phylogenetic and
 macroecological data on a hyperdiverse (&gt;1100 species) ant
 radiation, Pheidole, and test predictions of three general explanations
 for the latitudinal gradient: variation in diversification rates, tropical
 conservatism, and ecological regulation. Location: Global. Time Period:
 The past 35 million years. Major taxa studied: The hyperdiverse ant genus
 Pheidole Westwood. Methods: We assembled geographic data for 1499 species
 and morphospecies, and inferred a dated phylogeny for 449 species of the
 Pheidole, including 167 species newly sequenced for this study. We tested
 for correlations between diversification rate and latitude with BAMM,
 HiSSE, GeoSSE, and FiSSE, evaluated evidence for richness steady state,
 and examined patterns of diversification as Pheidole spread around the
 globe. Results: There was no evidence of systematic variation of net
 diversification rates with latitude across any of the methods. We found
 that Pheidole diversification occurred in bursts when new continents were
 colonized, followed by a slowdown in each region, but there is no evidence
 richness has saturated at an equilibrium in any region. Additionally, we
 found latitudinal affinity is moderately conserved with a Neotropical
 ancestor and simulations show that phylogenetic inertia alone is
 sufficient to produce the gradient pattern. Main Conclusions: Our results
 provide no evidence that diversification rates vary systematically with
 latitude. Richness is far from steady state in each region, contrary to
 the ecological regulation hypothesis, although there is evidence that
 ecological opportunity promotes diversification after colonization of new
 areas. The fact that niche conservatism is strong enough to produce the
 gradient pattern is in accord with the tropical conservatism hypothesis.
 Overall, these results shed light on the mechanisms underlying the
 emergence of the diversity gradient within the past 34 million years,
 complementing recent work on deeper timescales, and more generally
 contribute toward a much-needed invertebrate perspective on global
 biodiversity dynamics.
description: DNA sequence
 alignmentDNA sequence alignment
 used in the phylogenetic analysis.Alignment.nexBEAST_controlfileThe control file used in the BEAST analysis.BEAST mcc treeThe maximum clade credibility tree inferred with the BEAST analysis and used in the analyses.BEAST_mcc_treeML_treeThe maximum likelihood tree inferred in RaxML, used as a starting tree in the BEAST analysis.Geographic incidence matrixThe species by area geographic incidence matrix used for the analyses.Pheidole_geomatrix.xlsx