Meta-analysis as a preliminary test of the IDM: the richness of various clades of recently studied terrestrial and freshwater plants and animals in the western Indian Ocean, based on a review of nearly 100 recent studies [14].

<p>Regression results show polynomial fit (R² = 0.85, P<0.0001). For those taxa where dispersal event estimates are possible, diversity is largely explained by the number of estimated transoceanic dispersal events per lineage. Estimates of dispersal events are not available for excellent dispersers in the region. Nevertheless, clearly the best dispersers are both widespread and species poor (Fig. 3), implying that the relationship seen here breaks down at extreme dispersal abilities. Red dots show exceptionally diverse poor dispersers that all represent radiations on Madagascar either vicariant, or as a result of a single dispersal event. This highlights the extreme rarity of such events and thus how poor dispersal ability can severely restrict diversification among islands, but may promote it within the few islands–likely large and old–they by chance do colonize.</p

Species richness (on y) as a function of estimated dispersal ability.

<p>Rough categorical estimates of dispersal abilities were made from Appendix S1 based on frequency of transoceanic dispersal events ranging from very poor (zero estimated transoceanic dispersal events) to excellent (regular transoceanic dispersal). Clades that contain intermediate to good dispersers, that have undergone several transoceanic dispersal events, but do probably not maintain gene flow among islands, tend to be most species rich. Excellent dispersers are species poor, while poor dispersers range from species poor to moderately species rich, with the latter reflecting mostly within-island diversification in Madagascar. However, the exact number of such events or, for example, the minimum number of transoceanic dispersal events necessary to maintain gene flow and prevent speciation, is unknown but might be addressed through detailed genetic studies and/or simulations.</p

A graphical representation of the IDM.

<p>In co-distributed lineages of similar ages, dispersal ability (Fig. 1: x axis) positively, though not necessarily linearly as presented in this simple model, correlates with the number of isolated patches/landmasses a lineage will come to occupy (Fig. 1: y axis). On the other hand, dispersal ability will negatively, again not necessarily linearly, correlate with genetic divergence among populations (Fig. 1: z axis), as good dispersers maintain higher rates of gene flow <a href="http://www.plosone.org/article/info:doi/10.1371/journal.pone.0086780#pone.0086780-Heaney1" target="_blank">[13]</a>. The inevitable consequence of these two factors is the prediction that intermediate dispersers will be the most diverse: the poorest dispersers will not be able to colonize isolated landmasses, severely limiting opportunities for diversification, while excellent dispersers will repeatedly colonize many landmasses and maintain gene flow among them. Intermediate dispersers, however, have the opportunity to colonize new landmasses, but do so rarely enough so that colonization restricts gene flow among populations, leading to genetic divergence and eventually speciation <a href="http://www.plosone.org/article/info:doi/10.1371/journal.pone.0086780#pone.0086780-Garb1" target="_blank">[12]</a>. A skew towards high diversity of relatively poorer dispersers is expected on large, old, Wallacean (fragment) islands, while small, young, Darwinian (de novo) islands will be home mostly to relatively good dispersers.</p

Regression analysis between independent contrasts of mean group size and mean number of inflection points

<p><b>Copyright information:</b></p><p>Taken from "Phylogenetic review of tonal sound production in whales in relation to sociality"</p><p>http://www.biomedcentral.com/1471-2148/7/136</p><p>BMC Evolutionary Biology 2007;7():136-136.</p><p>Published online 10 Aug 2007</p><p>PMCID:PMC2000896.</p><p></p> One conspicuous outlier (arrow) represents a contrast including the killer whale () which forms relatively small social groups but produces highly modulated whistles. It has been proposed that the killer whale uses whistles in a manner different from any other delphinid to indicate motivational state. That multiple factors are at work shaping tonal sounds in cetaceans may obscure and make difficult to discover true co-evolutinary histories of characters. Accordingly when is removed from the analysis the regression between the two characters becomes stronger

Barcodes

DNA barcodes and barcoding tre

TreesForComparativeAnalyses_02

Trees and data used for comparative analyse

AllDataforPhylogeny04

Five locus concatenated DNA matrix used for phylogenetic analyse

Data matrix including best-fit partitioning scheme found with PartitionFinder

Data matrix in NEXUS format with eight best-fit partitions, 6568 characters, and 38 tax

Phylogeny from Bayesian analysis

Bayesian phylogeny estimated with the best-fit partitioning scheme for a concatenated 12-gene datase

Data matrix including gene partitions

Data matrix in NEXUS format with 12 gene fragments (12S, 16S, 28S, CAD, COII, COI, CYTB, EF1aF2, Pol II, ATP6, ATP8, wg), 6568 characters, and 38 tax