Data from: Hummingbird pollination and the diversification of angiosperms: an old and successful association in Gesneriaceae

The effects of specific functional groups of pollinators in the
diversification of angiosperms are still to be elucidated. We investigated
whether the pollination shifts or the specific association with
hummingbirds affected the diversification of a highly diverse angiosperm
lineage in the Neotropics. We reconstructed a phylogeny of 583 species
from the Gesneriaceae family and detected diversification shifts through
time, inferred the timing and amount of transitions among pollinator
functional groups, and tested the association between hummingbird
pollination and speciation and extinction rates. We identified a high
frequency of pollinator transitions, including reversals to
insect-pollination. Diversification rates of the group increased through
time since 25 Mya, coinciding with the evolution of hummingbird-like
flowers and the arrival of hummingbirds in South America. We showed that
plants pollinated by hummingbirds have a two-fold higher speciation rate
compared to plants pollinated by insects, and that transitions among
functional groups of pollinators had a little impact on the
diversification process. We demonstrated that floral specialization on
hummingbirds for pollination has triggered rapid diversification in the
Gesneriaceae family since the early Miocene, and that it represents one of
the oldest identified plant-hummingbird associations. Biotic drivers of
plant diversification in the Neotropics could be more related to this
specific type of pollinator (hummingbirds), than to shifts among different
functional groups of pollinators.