Data and code from: Amphibian speciation rates support a general role of mountains as biodiversity pumps

Continental mountain areas cover less than 15% of global land surface,
yet, these regions concentrate over 80% of global terrestrial diversity.
One prominent hypothesis to explain this pattern proposes that high
mountain diversities could be explained by higher diversification rates in
regions of high topographic complexity. While high speciation in mountains
has been detected for particular clades and regions, the global extent to
which lineages experience faster speciation in mountains remains unknown.
Here we address this issue using amphibians as model system (>7,000
species) and found that families showing high diversification rates
contain a high proportion of species distributed in mountains. Moreover,
we found that lineages inhabiting areas of high topographic complexity
speciate faster than lineages occupying areas topographically less
complex. When comparing across regions, we identified the same pattern in
five biogeographical realms where higher speciation rates are associated
with higher levels of complex topography. Low magnitude differences in
speciation rates between some low and high complex topographies suggest
that high mountain diversity is also affected by low extinction and/or
high colonization rates. Nevertheless, our results bolster the importance
of mountains as engines of speciation at different geographical scales and
highlight their importance for the conservation of global biodiversity.