Evolutionary age correlates with range size across plants and animals
Nature Communications, vol. 16, pp. 7894
Abstract
More than 40 thousand species of plants and animals are facing extinction worldwide. Range size is one of the strongest determinants of extinction risk, but the causes underlying the wide variation in natural range sizes remain poorly understood. Here, we investigate how species' age is related to present-day range size for over 26,000 species of mammals, birds, reptiles, amphibians, reef fishes, and plants. We show that, on average, older species have larger ranges across all groups except for marine mammals, but the strength of the age-range size relationship depends on taxonomic scale. Furthermore, while our results confirm the well-established pattern of smaller range sizes for species restricted to islands (compared to mainland) or with limited dispersal abilities (compared to good dispersers), we show that the correlation between species age and range size is stronger in these groups, suggesting that island dynamics and dispersal ability modulate this relationship. Our study reveals that species with small ranges, and thus increased extinction risk, tend to be restricted to islands, are poor dispersers, or have recently evolved.
Authors 13
-
Naturalis Biodiversity Center · German Centre for Integrative Biodiversity Research · Wageningen University & Research · Leipzig University
Affiliation as printed
Aquaculture and Fisheries Group, Wageningen University and Research, Wageningen, The Netherlands. adria.alzate@gmail.com
German Centre for Integrative Biodiversity Research (iDiv) Halle - Jena - Leipzig, Leipzig, Germany. adria.alzate@gmail.com
Leipzig University, Leipzig, Germany. adria.alzate@gmail.com
Naturalis Biodiversity Center, Leiden, the Netherlands. adria.alzate@gmail.com
Aquaculture and Fisheries Group, Wageningen University and Research, Wageningen, The Netherlands
German Centre for Integrative Biodiversity Research (iDiv) Halle - Jena - Leipzig, Leipzig, Germany
-
Museum für Naturkunde · German Centre for Integrative Biodiversity Research · Martin Luther University Halle-Wittenberg
Affiliation as printed
Central Repository of Natural Science Collections (ZNS), Martin Luther University Halle-Wittenberg, Halle (Saale), Germany
German Centre for Integrative Biodiversity Research (iDiv) Halle - Jena - Leipzig, Leipzig, Germany
Museum für Naturkunde, Leibniz Institute for Evolution and Biodiversity Science, Berlin, Germany
-
Instituto de Ciencias de la Atmósfera y Cambio Climático · Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México
Affiliation as printed
Instituto de Ciencias de la Atmósfera y Cambio Climático, Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México, Mexico City, Mexico
-
Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute
Affiliation as printed
Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute, Balboa, Panama
-
Philipps University of Marburg
Affiliation as printed
Department of Biology, Philipps-University Marburg, Marburg, Germany
-
Affiliation as printed
Department of Life Sciences, Imperial College London, Ascot, United Kingdom
-
Affiliation as printed
Department of Biological and Environmental Sciences, University of Gothenburg, Gothenburg, Sweden
Gothenburg Global Biodiversity Centre, Gothenburg, Sweden
-
Affiliation as printed
Department of Biological and Environmental Sciences, University of Gothenburg, Gothenburg, Sweden
Gothenburg Global Biodiversity Centre, Gothenburg, Sweden
-
Affiliation as printed
Groningen Institute for Evolutionary Life Sciences, University of Groningen, Groningen, the Netherlands
-
Swiss Federal Institute for Forest, Snow and Landscape Research · ETH Zurich · Institute of Terrestrial Ecosystems
Affiliation as printed
Department of Landscape Dynamics & Ecology, Swiss Federal Institute for Forest, Snow and Landscape Research WSL, Birmensdorf, Switzerland
Ecosystems & Landscape Evolution, Department of Environmental Systems Science, Institute of Terrestrial Ecosystems, Swiss Federal Institute of Technology, ETH Zurich, Zurich, Switzerland
-
Wageningen University & Research
Affiliation as printed
Plant Ecology and Nature Conservation, Wageningen University and Research, Wageningen, The Netherlands
-
Affiliation as printed
Department of Life Sciences, Imperial College London, Ascot, United Kingdom
-
Naturalis Biodiversity Center · German Centre for Integrative Biodiversity Research · Leipzig University
Affiliation as printed
German Centre for Integrative Biodiversity Research (iDiv) Halle - Jena - Leipzig, Leipzig, Germany
Leipzig University, Leipzig, Germany
Naturalis Biodiversity Center, Leiden, the Netherlands
Cited by 8 stored of 8
8 results
No patents citing this paper on Lens.org (checked 2026-10-11).