Topographic change shapes the evolution of biodiversity by influencing both habitat connectivity and habitat diversity as well as abiotic factors like climate. However, its role in creating global biodiversity gradients remains poorly characterized because geology, climate and evolutionary data have rarely been integrated across concordant timescales. Here we show that topographic uplift over the last 3 million years explains more spatial variation in the speciation of all mammals and birds than do the direct effects of palaeoclimate change and both present-day elevation and present-day temperature. By contrast, the effects of topographic changes are much smaller than those of present-day temperatures in eroded areas. Together, our results stress that historical geological processes rather than traditionally studied macroecological gradients may ultimately generate much of the world’s biodiversity. More broadly, as the Earth’s surface continues to rise and fall, topography will remain an important driver of evolutionary change and novelty.

地形变化通过影响栖息地连通性和栖息地多样性以及气候等非生物因素来塑造生物多样性的演变。然而，由于地质、气候和进化数据很少在一致的时间尺度上整合，它在创造全球生物多样性梯度方面的作用仍然很差。在这里，我们展示了过去 300 万年的地形隆起解释了所有哺乳动物和鸟类物种形成的更多空间变化，而不是古气候变化以及当前海拔和当前温度的直接影响。相比之下，地形变化的影响远小于侵蚀地区当前温度的影响。一起，我们的研究结果强调，历史地质过程而不是传统研究的宏观生态梯度可能最终产生世界上大部分的生物多样性。更广泛地说，随着地球表面的不断上升和下降，地形仍将是进化变化和新奇事物的重要驱动力。