title: Tracing the rise of ants - out of the ground.
abstract: The evolution of ants (Hymenoptera: Formicidae) is increasingly well-understood due to recent phylogenetic analyses, along with estimates of divergence times and diversification rates. Yet, leading hypotheses regarding the ancestral habitat of ants conflict with new findings that early ant lineages are cryptic and subterranean. Where the ants evolved, in respect to habitat, and how habitat shifts took place over time have not been formally tested. Here, we reconstruct the habitat transitions of crown-group ants through time, focusing on where they nest and forage (in the canopy, litter, or soil). Based on ancestral character reconstructions, we show that in contrast to the current consensus based on verbal arguments that ants evolved in tropical leaf litter, the soil is supported as the ancestral stratum of all ants. We also find subsequent movements up into the litter and, in some cases, into the canopy. Given the global importance of ants, because of their diversity, ecological influence and status as the most successful eusocial lineage on Earth, understanding the early evolution of this lineage provides insight into the factors that made this group so successful today.
authors.affiliation: Department of Biology, North Carolina State University, Raleigh, North Carolina, United States of America ; Entomology and Nematology Department, University of Florida, Gainesville, Florida, United States of America.
authors.forename: Andrea
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Lucky
authors.affiliation: Department of Entomology, North Carolina State University, Raleigh, North Carolina, United States of America ; Nature Research Center, North Carolina Museum of Natural Sciences, Raleigh, North Carolina, United States of America.
authors.forename: Michelle D
authors.initials: MD
authors.lastname: Trautwein
authors.affiliation: Department of Biology, North Carolina State University, Raleigh, North Carolina, United States of America ; Biodiversity and Biocomplexity Unit, Okinawa Institute of Science & Technology, Onna-son, Okinawa, Japan.
authors.forename: Benoit S
authors.initials: BS
authors.lastname: Guénard
authors.affiliation: Department of Biology, North Carolina State University, Raleigh, North Carolina, United States of America ; Department of Biology, University of Oklahoma, Norman, Oklahoma, United States of America.
authors.forename: Michael D
authors.initials: MD
authors.lastname: Weiser
authors.affiliation: Department of Biology, North Carolina State University, Raleigh, North Carolina, United States of America.
authors.forename: Robert R
authors.initials: RR
authors.lastname: Dunn
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D001000:Ants; D017753:Ecosystem; D019143:Evolution, Molecular; D006358:Hot Temperature; D010802:Phylogeny; D018515:Plant Leaves; D012987:Soil; D013223:Statistics as Topic
chemical_list: D012987:Soil