Adaptive Radiation - Identification

Identification

Four features can be used to identify an adaptive radiation:

1. A common ancestry of component species: specifically a recent ancestry. Note that this is not the same as a monophyly in which all descendants of a common ancestor are included.
2. A phenotype-environment correlation: a significant association between environments and the morphological and physiological traits used to exploit those environments.
3. Trait utility: the performance or fitness advantages of trait values in their corresponding environments.
4. Rapid speciation: presence of one or more bursts in the emergence of new species around the time that ecological and phenotypic divergence is underway.