Speciation, dispersal, and the build-up of fern diversity in the American tropics

This dataset supports an investigation into the temporal dynamics of
speciation and dispersal in ferns (Polypodiopsida) across the American
tropics. It includes 378,115 georeferenced occurrence records compiled
from GBIF, cleaned and taxonomically standardised using the
'CoordinateCleaner' and 'taxastand' R packages.
Species were matched to a time-calibrated phylogenetic tree comprising
5850 fern species, from which 56 clades predominantly distributed in the
American tropics were retrieved. These clades encompass 1530 species coded
for presence/absence across nine biogeographically defined regions and a
global category. Using biogeographical stochastic mapping (BSM) in
BioGeoBEARS, we estimated the frequency and type of biogeographic events
(e.g., dispersal, extinction, speciation) across 1-million-year time
slices. The dataset also includes lineage-through-time (LTT) counts,
regional species pool compositions at four time points (0, 5, 10, and 30
Ma), and pairwise compositional similarities calculated using the Jaccard
index. These data provide a foundation for analysing historical
biogeographic transitions and diversification patterns in tropical ferns,
with emphasis on regional connectivity and the role of the Andes as a
biodiversity source.