Dating the Tree of Life

  • 9,753

    Total downloads

  • 52k

    Total views and downloads

Submit your idea

Select the journal/section where you want your idea to be submitted:

Submit your manuscript summarySubmit your manuscript

About this Research Topic

Submission closed

Background

Some of the most basic questions about the evolution of life concern the chronology of events. When did a given taxon appear? When did it diversify? Was its diversification slow and gradual, or did it occur in bursts (evolutionary radiations), and if so, when were these bursts, and what caused them? Answering such questions is important not only to satisfy our intellectual curiosity about the history of life, but also to allow sophisticated analyses in other fields.
Dating the TOL has become a major goal of biological research, as shown by various well-funded initiatives (at least in the USA), such as the Assembling the Tree of Life program of the National Science Foundation, which has distributed over 57 000 000 $US since 2006. Some molecular systematics laboratories now specialize in this task. This interest in dating the TOL is not surprising because beyond the intrinsic goal of reconstructing the history of taxonomic diversification, timetrees are required in many types of comparative analyses. In fact, time data are so useful that it some authors have suggested to systematically add this information to taxon names.
These advances in evolutionary biology, which require timetrees, have revolutionized modern science by allowing more rigorous analyses. For instance, conservation studies previously used species counts (at best) or higher taxon count (of genera, families...) to assess the biodiversity of various regions), but all these approaches are problematic, to various extents. There is no universally accepted species concept, despite repeated attempts to unify species concepts; as such, the entities that we call “species” and that are registered into various databanks are not ontologically comparable; some are clades, some are reproductive communities, some are evolutionary lineages, others are phenetic clusters, and yet others belong to two or more of these categories. Taxa belonging to higher categories are even more problematic in conservation biology because, like species, they share no objective properties, and they often differ rather strongly in many important aspects, such as geological age of origin, number of included species, or phenotypic variability. The most satisfactory solution that has been advocated (and widely applied) to circumvent all these problems is to use the phylogenetic diversity (the sum of branch lengths), as this captures the sum of unique history of a given clade, or of a given fauna or flora of a region.
In comparative biology, timetrees have become essential since we have realized that comparative data are not statistically independent from each other. This is because closely related taxa tend to resemble each other more closely than distantly related taxa. Thus, all modern comparative techniques for inter-specific datasets incorporate phylogenetic information, ideally in the form of timetrees.
Various evolutionary problems, such as the search of a correlation between past climatic changes or geological events (i.e. the break-up of Pangea) and taxonomic or phenotypic diversification, require timetrees to be meaningfully studied. Thus, timetrees are at the core of several biological fields, so any project that would significantly improve how they are built would benefit a large segment of the biological community.
Historically, dating the Tree of Life (TOL) has relied initially almost exclusively on the fossil record. More recently, this has been complemented increasingly by molecular timetrees, a change allowed by the tremendous growth of molecular phylogenetics in the last two decades, even though the roots of molecular dating hark back to the 1960s. This research topic will host reviews of recent methodological developments in dating the TOL or of the substantial progress that has been made recently in dating the evolutionary radiation of some taxa, as well as articles describing ne

Important note: All contributions to this Research Topic must be within the scope of the section and journal to which they are submitted, as defined in their mission statements. Frontiers reserves the right to guide an out-of-scope manuscript to a more suitable section or journal at any stage of peer review.

Topic editors

Frequently asked questions

  • Frontiers' Research Topics are collaborative hubs built around an emerging theme.Defined, managed, and led by renowned researchers, they bring communities together around a shared area of interest to stimulate collaboration and innovation.

    Unlike section journals, which serve established specialty communities, Research Topics are pioneer hubs, responding to the evolving scientific landscape and catering to new communities.

  • The goal of Frontiers' publishing program is to empower research communities to actively steer the course of scientific publishing. Our program was implemented as a three-part unit with fixed field journals, flexible specialty sections, and dynamically emerging Research Topics, connecting communities of different sizes and maturity.

    Research Topics originate from the scientific community. Many of our Research Topics are suggested by existing editorial board members who have identified critical challenges or areas of interest in their field.

  • As an editor, Research Topics will help you build your journal, as well as your community, around emerging, cutting-edge research. As research trailblazers, Research Topics attract high-quality submissions from leading experts all over the world.

    A thriving Research Topic can potentially evolve into a new specialty section if there is sustained interest and a growing community around it.

  • Each Research Topic must be approved by the specialty chief editor, and it falls under the editorial oversight of our editorial boards, supported by our in-house research integrity team. The same standards and rigorous peer review processes apply to articles published as part of a Research Topic as for any other article we publish.

    In 2023, 80% of the Research Topics we published were edited or co-edited by our editorial board members, who are already familiar with their journal's scope, ethos, and publishing model. All other topics are guest edited by leaders in their field, each vetted and formally approved by the specialty chief editor.

  • Publishing your article within a Research Topic with other related articles increases its discoverability and visibility, which can lead to more views, downloads, and citations. Research Topics grow dynamically as more published articles are added, causing frequent revisiting, and further visibility.

    As Research Topics are multidisciplinary, they are cross-listed in several fields and section journals – increasing your reach even more and giving you the chance to expand your network and collaborate with researchers in different fields, all focusing on expanding knowledge around the same important topic.

    Our larger Research Topics are also converted into ebooks and receive social media promotion from our digital marketing team.

     

  • Frontiers offers multiple article types, but it will depend on the field and section journals in which the Research Topic will be featured. The available article types for a Research Topic will appear in the drop-down menu during the submission process.

    Check available article types here 

  • Yes, we would love to hear your ideas for a topic. Most of our Research Topics are community-led and suggested by researchers in the field. Our in-house editorial team will contact you to talk about your idea and whether you’d like to edit the topic. If you’re an early-stage researcher, we will offer you the opportunity to coordinate your topic, with the support of a senior researcher as the topic editor. 

    Suggest your topic here 

  • A team of guest editors (called topic editors) lead their Research Topic. This editorial team oversees the entire process, from the initial topic proposal to calls for participation, the peer review, and final publications.

    The team may also include topic coordinators, who help the topic editors send calls for participation, liaise with topic editors on abstracts, and support contributing authors. In some cases, they can also be assigned as reviewers.

  • As a topic editor (TE), you will take the lead on all editorial decisions for the Research Topic, starting with defining its scope. This allows you to curate research around a topic that interests you, bring together different perspectives from leading researchers across different fields and shape the future of your field. 

     

    You will choose your team of co-editors, curate a list of potential authors, send calls for participation and oversee the peer review process, accepting or recommending rejection for each manuscript submitted.

  • As a topic editor, you're supported at every stage by our in-house team. You will be assigned a single point of contact to help you on both editorial and technical matters. Your topic is managed through our user-friendly online platform, and the peer review process is supported by our industry-first AI review assistant (AIRA).

  • If you’re an early-stage researcher, we will offer you the opportunity to coordinate your topic, with the support of a senior researcher as the topic editor. This provides you with valuable editorial experience, improving your ability to critically evaluate research articles and enhancing your understanding of the quality standards and requirements for scientific publishing, as well as the opportunity to discover new research in your field, and expand your professional network.

  • Yes, certificates can be issued on request. We are happy to provide a certificate for your contribution to editing a successful Research Topic.

  • Research Topics thrive on collaboration and their multi-disciplinary approach around emerging, cutting-edge themes, attract leading researchers from all over the world.

  • As a topic editor, you can set the timeline for your Research Topic, and we will work with you at your pace. Typically, Research Topics are online and open for submissions within a few weeks and remain open for participation for 6 – 12 months. Individual articles within a Research Topic are published as soon as they are ready.

    Find out more about our Research Topics

  • Our fee support program ensures that all articles that pass peer review, including those published in Research Topics, can benefit from open access – regardless of the author's field or funding situation.

    Authors and institutions with insufficient funding can apply for a discount on their publishing fees. A fee support application form is available on our website.

  • In line with our mission to promote healthy lives on a healthy planet, we do not provide printed materials. All our articles and ebooks are available under a CC-BY license, so you can share and print copies.

     

Participating Journals

Impact

  • 52kTopic views
  • 39kArticle views
  • 9,753Article downloads
View impact