A common pattern in time‐calibrated molecular phylogenies is a signal of rapid
diversification early in the history of a radiation. Because the net rate of diversification is the
difference between speciation and extinction rates, such “explosive‐early” diversification
could result either from temporally declining speciation rates or from increasing extinction
rates through time. Distinguishing between these alternatives is challenging but important,
because these processes likely result from different ecological drivers of diversification. Here …