RT Journal Article
SR Electronic
T1 Neglected no longer: Phylogenomic resolution of higher-level relationships in Solifugae
JF bioRxiv
FD Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory
SP 2022.10.22.513338
DO 10.1101/2022.10.22.513338
A1 Siddharth S. Kulkarni
A1 Hugh G. Steiner
A1 Erika L. Garcia
A1 Hernán Iuri
A1 R. Ryan Jones
A1 Jesús A. Ballesteros
A1 Guilherme Gainett
A1 Matthew R. Graham
A1 Danilo Harms
A1 Robin Lyle
A1 Andrés A. Ojanguren-Affilastro
A1 Carlos E. Santibañez-López
A1 Gustavo Silva de Miranda
A1 Paula E. Cushing
A1 Efrat Gavish-Regev
A1 Prashant P. Sharma
YR 2022
UL http://biorxiv.org/content/early/2022/10/25/2022.10.22.513338.abstract
AB Considerable progress has been achieved in resolving higher-level relationships of Arthropoda in the past two decades, largely precipitated by advances in sequencing technology. Yet, dark branches persist in the arthropod tree of life, principally among groups that are difficult to collect, occur in cryptic habitats, or are characterized by minute body size. Among chelicerates, the mesodiverse order Solifugae (commonly called camel spiders or sun spiders) is one of the last orders of Arachnida that lacks a higher-level phylogeny altogether and has long been characterized as one of the “neglected cousins”, a lineage of arachnid orders that are comparatively poorly studied with respect to evolutionary relationships. Though renowned for their aggression, remarkable running speed, and adaptation to arid habitats, inferring solifuge relationships has been hindered by inaccessibility of diagnostic characters in most ontogenetic stages for morphological datasets, whereas molecular investigations to date have been limited to one of the 12 recognized families. In this study we generated a phylogenomic dataset via capture of ultraconserved elements (UCEs) and sampled all extant families. We recovered a well-resolved phylogeny of solifuge families, with two distinct groups of New World taxa nested within a broader Paleotropical radiation. To provide a temporal context to solifuge diversification, we estimated molecular divergence times using fossil calibrations within a least-squares framework. Solifugae were inferred to have radiated by the Permian, with divergences of most families dating to the post Paleogene-Cretaceous extinction. These results accord with a diversification history largely driven by vicariance as a result of continental breakup.Competing Interest StatementThe authors have declared no competing interest.