Correction to: Nature Communications https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-020-14589-2, published online 18 February 2020.

The original version of this Article contained an error in the legend of Fig. 2 and Supplementary Figs. 2 and 8–16, each of which incorrectly stated ‘The global patterns were computed as the predicted richness in the past, i.e. predicted number of species per hexagon: 10,000 years before present (a, b); 20,000 BP (c, d); and 50,000 BP (e, f), minus the predicted richness in the present. BP before present. Red areas had more species than today, blue areas fewer’. The correct version reads ‘The global patterns were computed as the predicted richness in the present minus the predicted richness in the past, i.e. predicted number of species per hexagon: 10,000 years before present (a, b); 20,000 BP (c, d); and 50,000 BP (e, f). BP before present. Red areas had fewer species in the past than today, blue areas more’. This has been corrected in the PDF and HTML versions of the Article, and the HTML has been updated to include a corrected version of the Supplementary Information.