Suppose that a type of tree tends to speciate over 10 million years and a species of fly tends to speciate over 1 million years. In the event of a mass extinction, which of the following predictions would LIKELY be true?
A. It is impossible to determine how many niches or species the trees and flies would lead to over time.
B. The trees would fill more niches and create more species than the flies.
C. The flies would fill more niches and create more species than the trees.
D. They would both lead to the same number of species.
B. The trees would fill more niches and create more species than the flies.
This is likely true because the tree species tend to speciate at a slower rate (10 million years) compared to the fly species (1 million years), meaning that the trees have more time to diversify and fill different ecological niches.