Résumé
The Eocene-Oligocene transition (EOT) represents a period of global
environmental changes particularly marked in Europe and coincides with a
dramatic biotic turnover. Here, using an exceptional fossil preservation,
we document and analyse the diversity dynamics of a mammal clade,
Cainotherioidea (Artiodactyla), that survived the EOT and radiated rapidly
immediately after. We infer their diversification history from Quercy
Konzentrat-Lagerstätte (South-West France) at the species level using
Bayesian birth-death models. We show that cainotherioid diversity
fluctuated through time, with extinction events at the EOT and in the late
Oligocene, and a major speciation burst in the early Oligocene. The latter
is in line with our finding that cainotherioids had a high morphological
adaptability following environmental changes throughout the EOT, which
likely played a key role in the survival and evolutionary success of this
clade in the aftermath. Speciation is positively associated with
temperature and continental fragmentation in a time-continuous way, while
extinction seems to synchronize with environmental change in a punctuated
way. Within-clade interactions negatively affected the cainotherioid
diversification, while inter-clade competition might explain their final
decline during the late Oligocene. Our results provide a detailed dynamic
picture of the evolutionary history of a mammal clade in a context of
global change.