Data from: Bayesian estimation of the global biogeographical history of the Solanaceae

Aim: The tomato family Solanaceae is distributed on all major continents
except Antarctica and has its centre of diversity in South America. Its
worldwide distribution suggests multiple long-distance dispersals within
and between the New and Old Worlds. Here, we apply maximum likelihood (ML)
methods and newly developed biogeographical stochastic mapping (BSM) to
infer the ancestral range of the family and to estimate the frequency of
dispersal and vicariance events resulting in its present-day distribution.
Location: Worldwide. Methods: Building on a recently inferred
megaphylogeny of Solanaceae, we conducted ML model fitting of a range of
biogeographical models with the program ‘BioGeoBEARS’. We used the
parameters from the best fitting model to estimate ancestral range
probabilities and conduct stochastic mapping, from which we estimated the
number and type of biogeographical events. Results: Our best model
supported South America as the ancestral area for the Solanaceae and its
major clades. The BSM analyses showed that dispersal events, particularly
range expansions, are the principal mode by which members of the family
have spread beyond South America. Main conclusions: For Solanaceae, South
America is not only the family's current centre of diversity but also
its ancestral range, and dispersal was the principal driver of range
evolution. The most common dispersal patterns involved range expansions
from South America into North and Central America, while dispersal in the
reverse direction was less common. This directionality may be due to the
early build-up of species richness in South America, resulting in large
pool of potential migrants. These results demonstrate the utility of BSM
not only for estimating ancestral ranges but also in inferring the
frequency, direction and timing of biogeographical events in a
statistically rigorous framework.