A molecular palaeobiological exploration of arthropod terrestrialization.
Understanding animal terrestrialization, the process through which animals colonized the land, is crucial to clarify extant biodiversity and biological adaptation. Arthropoda (insects, spiders, centipedes and their allies) represent the largest majority of terrestrial biodiversity. Here we implemented a molecular palaeobiological approach, merging molecular and fossil evidence, to elucidate the deepest history of the terrestrial arthropods. We focused on the three independent, Palaeozoic arthropod terrestrialization events (those of Myriapoda, Hexapoda and Arachnida) and showed that a marine route to the colonization of land is the most likely scenario. Molecular clock analyses confirmed an origin for the three terrestrial lineages bracketed between the Cambrian and the Silurian. While molecular divergence times for Arachnida are consistent with the fossil record, Myriapoda are inferred to have colonized land earlier, substantially predating trace or body fossil evidence. An estimated origin of myriapods by the Early Cambrian precedes the appearance of embryophytes and perhaps even terrestrial fungi, raising the possibility that terrestrialization had independent origins in crown-group myriapod lineages, consistent with morphological arguments for convergence in tracheal systems.This article is part of the themed issue 'Dating species divergences using rocks and clocks'.
School of Earth Sciences, University of Bristol, Life Sciences Building, 24 Tyndall Avenue, Bristol BS8 1TQ, UK School of Biological Sciences, University of Bristol, Life Sciences Building, 24 Tyndall Avenue, Bristol BS8 1TQ, UK.
Jesus
0000-0003-3597-1221
J
Lozano-Fernandez
Department of Biology, The National University of Ireland Maynooth, Maynooth, Kildare, Ireland.
Robert
R
Carton
School of Biological Sciences, University of Bristol, Life Sciences Building, 24 Tyndall Avenue, Bristol BS8 1TQ, UK.
Alastair R
0000-0001-8045-2856
AR
Tanner
School of Earth Sciences, University of Bristol, Life Sciences Building, 24 Tyndall Avenue, Bristol BS8 1TQ, UK.
Mark N
0000-0002-1011-3442
MN
Puttick
Institute of Evolutionary Biology, University of Edinburgh, Edinburgh EH9 3TF, UK.
Mark
0000-0003-2861-949X
M
Blaxter
School of Earth Sciences, University of Bristol, Life Sciences Building, 24 Tyndall Avenue, Bristol BS8 1TQ, UK School of Biological Sciences, University of Bristol, Life Sciences Building, 24 Tyndall Avenue, Bristol BS8 1TQ, UK.
Jakob
0000-0002-3584-9616
J
Vinther
Natural History Museum of Denmark, University of Copenhagen, Universitetsparken 15, 2100 Copenhagen, Denmark.
Jørgen
0000-0001-9582-7083
J
Olesen
Museum of Comparative Zoology, Department of Organismic and Evolutionary Biology, Harvard University, 26 Oxford Street, Cambridge, MA 02138, USA.
Gonzalo
0000-0002-5467-8429
G
Giribet
Department of Earth Sciences, The Natural History Museum, Cromwell Road, London SW7 5BD, UK.
Gregory D
GD
Edgecombe
School of Earth Sciences, University of Bristol, Life Sciences Building, 24 Tyndall Avenue, Bristol BS8 1TQ, UK School of Biological Sciences, University of Bristol, Life Sciences Building, 24 Tyndall Avenue, Bristol BS8 1TQ, UK davide.pisani@bristol.ac.uk.
Davide
0000-0003-0949-6682
D
Pisani
D000818:Animals; D001181:Arthropods / Q000033:anatomy & histology* / Q000235:genetics*; D005075:Biological Evolution; D017753:Ecosystem; D019143:Evolution, Molecular; D005580:Fossils / Q000033:anatomy & histology*; D010802:Phylogeny
arthropod evolution; molecular clock; molecular palaeobiology; phylogeny; terrestrialization