title: Phylogeny of the ants: diversification in the age of angiosperms.
abstract: We present a large-scale molecular phylogeny of the ants (Hymenoptera: Formicidae), based on 4.5 kilobases of sequence data from six gene regions extracted from 139 of the 288 described extant genera, representing 19 of the 20 subfamilies. All but two subfamilies are recovered as monophyletic. Divergence time estimates calibrated by minimum age constraints from 43 fossils indicate that most of the subfamilies representing extant ants arose much earlier than previously proposed but only began to diversify during the Late Cretaceous to Early Eocene. This period also witnessed the rise of angiosperms and most herbivorous insects.
authors.affiliation: Museum of Comparative Zoology, Harvard University, 26 Oxford Street, Cambridge, MA 02138, USA. cmoreau@oeb.harvard.edu
authors.forename: Corrie S
authors.initials: CS
authors.lastname: Moreau
authors.forename: Charles D
authors.initials: CD
authors.lastname: Bell
authors.forename: Roger
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Vila
authors.forename: S Bruce
authors.initials: SB
authors.lastname: Archibald
authors.forename: Naomi E
authors.initials: NE
authors.lastname: Pierce
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D001000:Ants / Q000033:anatomy & histology / Q000145:classification* / Q000235:genetics*; D001483:Base Sequence; D001499:Bayes Theorem; D044822:Biodiversity; D005075:Biological Evolution; D019295:Computational Biology; D017753:Ecosystem; D004777:Environment; D005580:Fossils; D017344:Genes, Insect; D050259:Genes, Mitochondrial; D019684:Magnoliopsida; D010802:Phylogeny; D013995:Time; D014197:Trees