Data from: Explaining the ocean’s richest biodiversity hotspot and global patterns of fish diversity

For most marine organisms, species richness peaks in the Central
Indo-Pacific region and declines longitudinally, a striking pattern that
remains poorly understood. Here, we used phylogenetic approaches to
address the causes of richness patterns among global marine regions,
comparing the relative importance of colonization time, number of
colonization events, and diversification rates (speciation minus
extinction). We estimated regional richness using distributional data for
almost all percomorph fishes (17,435 species total, including ~72% of all
marine fishes and ~33% of all freshwater fishes). The high diversity of
the Central Indo-Pacific was explained by its colonization by many
lineages 5.3–34 million years ago. These relatively old colonizations
allowed more time for richness to build up through in-situ diversification
compared to other warm-marine regions. Surprisingly, diversification rates
were decoupled from marine richness patterns, with clades in low-richness
cold-marine habitats having the highest rates. Unlike marine richness,
freshwater diversity was largely derived from a few ancient colonizations,
coupled with high diversification rates. Our results are congruent with
the geological history of the marine tropics, and thus may apply to many
other organisms. Beyond marine biogeography, we add to the growing number
of cases where colonization and time-for-speciation explain large-scale
richness patterns instead of diversification rates.