Tropical rain forest evolution: palms as a model group

Abstract

The biological diversity and complexity of tropical rain forests have fascinated biologists for centuries. This, the most species-rich terrestrial biome on Earth, is now severely threatened by human activity and yet we are still far from answering fundamental questions about its origins and evolution. Where and how did this huge diversity originate? What evolutionary processes were involved? How can we explain the patterns of current biodiversity across this biome? Basic biodiversity data, such as species composition, distribution and phylogenetic relationships, are fundamental prerequisites for a better understanding of tropical rain forest evolution. Species inventories, for example, can be exploited to unpick the evolutionary history of tropical rain forest assemblages using community phylogenetic approaches [1]. Perpendicular to this approach, taxonomic and systematic research focusing on lineages predominantly restricted to tropical rain forests can be rewarding [2]. In particular, dated phylogenies of tropical rain forest lineages can be used to unravel the evolutionary origins, timescales and processes of this biome as a whole. In this comment, we describe how one such tropical rain forest-restricted lineage, the palm family, has provided evidence of global rain forest history in a succession of recent studies integrating a range of basic biodiversity datasets [3-9], the first of which was published in BMC Biology [3], and now represents a model for the study of the tropical rain forest biome that may, potentially, be applied to other lineages of organisms.