Response to Comment on ?The Placental Mammal Ancestor and the Post?K-Pg Radiation Of Placentals?

O´LEARY MA; BLOCH JI; FLYNN JJ; GAUDIN, TJ; GIALLOMBARDO A; NORBERTO P. GIANNINI; GOLDBERG SL; KRAATZ BP; LUO Z-X; MENG J; NI X; NOVACEK MJ; PERINI FA; RANDALL ZS; ROUGIER GR; SARGIS EJ; SILCOX MT; NANCY B. SIMMONS; SPAULDING M; VELAZCO PM; WEKSLER M; JOHN R. WIBLE; CIRRANELLO AL

SCIENCE

AMER ASSOC ADVANCEMENT SCIENCE

Año: 2013 vol. 341 p. 1 - 2

0036-8075

Tree-building with diverse data maximizes explanatory power. Application of molecular clock models to ancient speciation events risks a bias against detection of fast radiations subsequent to the Cretaceous-Paleogene (K-Pg) event. Contrary to Springer et al., post?K-Pg placental diversification does not require ?virus-like? substitution rates. Even constraining clade ages to their model, the explosive model best explains placental evolution.