I am an integrative evolutionary biologist studying the phenotypic and biogeographic impact of duplication. From single genes to entire genomes, duplications are often associated with adaptive radiations, evolutionary novelties, and decreased extinction during periods of environmental change. Most studied in plants, there are nevertheless thousands of these major duplication events across animals and fungi, with more being discovered each year. I investigated comparative biogeography of polyploid and diploid frogs in South America. I discovered a remarkable and novel trend of spatial clustering within polyploid lineages. In all five genera of South American frogs with variable ploidy, virtually all polyploid occurrences were found in the southeast, largely to the exclusion of diploids. In fact, polyploid species occur more closely with intergeneric polyploids than they do with congeneric diploids, suggesting an environment which selects for genome duplication. Polyploid occurrences were subject to greater levels of seasonal temperature fluctuation and agricultural impacts, either of which may contribute to the formation and fitness of polyploid lineages. Later, I expanded this framework into a global study encompassing amphibians, ray-finned fishes, and insects. On this scale, differences were even more pronounced between cytotypes. In each of the three clades, polypoid occurrences became more frequent with distance from the equator. I attributed this trend in large part to glaciation cycles, which were the most important model variable in all three clades