Species selection and random drift in macroevolution

Abstract

Species selection resulting from trait-dependent speciation and extinction is increasingly recognized as an important mechanism of phenotypic macroevolution. However, the recent bloom in statistical methods quantifying this process faces a scarcity of dynamical theory for their interpretation, notably regarding the relative contributions of deterministic versus stochastic evolutionary forces. I use simple diffusion approximations of birth-death processes to investigate how the expected and random components of macroevolutionary change depend on phenotype-dependent speciation and extinction rates, as can be estimated empirically. I show that the species selection coefficient for a binary trait, and selection differential for a quantitative trait, depend not only on differences in net diversification rates (speciation minus extinction), but also on differences in species turnover rates (speciation plus extinction), especially in small clades. The randomness in speciation and extinction events also produces a species-level equivalent to random genetic drift, which is stronger for higher turnover rates. I then show how microevolutionary processes including mutation, organismic selection, and random genetic drift cause state transitions at the species level, allowing comparison of evolutionary forces across levels. A key parameter that would be needed to apply this theory is the distribution and rate of origination of new optimum phenotypes along a phylogeny.

Keywords: Anagenetic change; cladogenetic change; lineage sorting; trait-dependent diversification.