Macroevolution

Patterns and processes at and above the species level, including lineage origination, diversification and extinction. Its timescale does not make it independent of population processes.

A diversification rate describes change in the number of evolutionary lineages. Under a simple branching model with speciation rate $\lambda$ and extinction rate $\mu$, net diversification is $r=\lambda -\mu$. Equal net rates can therefore arise from slow turnover or from rapid speciation accompanied by rapid extinction.

An observed accumulation of living lineages does not uniquely identify both component rates. Fossils can supply additional evidence about extinct branches, with taphonomy and sampling affecting which histories are observed.

Diversification of a lineage into ecologically differentiated descendants. Colonization, ecological opportunity and reproductive barriers are distinct contributing processes.