The death of an assumption

One of modern biology's most 'common' assumptions was left looking a little exposed this week as evidence emerged that seems to suggest that new species form more easily in temperate rather than equatorial climes. The expansive natural diversity that exists between the tropics had always seemed to suggest the opposite conclusion, but it turns out that the abundance of life down there reflects a reduced rate of extinction, and not as previously thought, an enhanced rate of speciation.