Background: Hybridization between incipient species is expected to become progressively limited as their genetic divergence increases and reproductive isolation proceeds. Amphibian radiations and their secondary contact zones are useful models to infer the timeframes of speciation, but empirical data from natural systems remains extremely scarce. Here we follow this approach in the European radiation of tree frogs (Hyla arborea group). We investigated a natural hybrid zone between two lineages (Hyla arborea and Hyla orientalis) of...

Evolutionary and ecological theory predicts that closely related and similar species should coexist infrequently because speciation is more likely to occur allopatrically than sympatrically, and because co-occurring species with similar traits may compete for limited resources, leading to competitive exclusion or character displacement. Here we study the unusual coexistence of 10 similar congeneric species of Anelosimus spiders within a small forest fragment in Madagascar. We asked if these species radiated in sympatry or allopatry, and...

Two characters are stratigraphically compatible if some phylogenies indicate that their combinations (state-pairs) evolved without homoplasy and in an order consistent with the fossil record. Simulations assuming independent character change indicate that we expect approximately 95% of compatible character pairs to also be stratigraphically compatible over a wide range of sampling regimes and general evolutionary models. However, two general models of rate heterogeneity elevate expected stratigraphic incompatibility: “early burst” models, where rates of change are...