Figure 2: Hopping biodiversity hotspots.

Shown are the hopping hotspot observed from coral fossils (left) and simulated with the parapatric model (right) for three time periods, Eocene (a), Miocene (b) and Quaternary/current (c). The two most ancient time periods depict observed diversity interpolated from coral fossil records (www.paleodb.org), while the most recent period shows current coral diversity (IUCN). Diversity values were rescaled between 0 (minimum, pink) and 1 (maximum, green). The best model provided good correlation with Eocene and Miocene (d=4, d_s=5, 40 Ma: R²=0.26; 20 Ma: R²=0.38) and with present-day diversity (d=4, d_s=5, fish: R²=0.36; coral: R²=0.42).