Cretaceous environmental changes led to high extinction rates in a hyperdiverse beetle family

Abstract

BackgroundAs attested by the fossil record, Cretaceous environmental changes have significantly impacted the diversification dynamics of several groups of organisms. A major biome turnover that occurred during this period was the rise of angiosperms starting ca. 125 million years ago. Though there is evidence that the latter promoted the diversification of phytophagous insects, the response of other insect groups to Cretaceous environmental changes is still largely unknown. To gain novel insights on this issue, we assess the diversification dynamics of a hyperdiverse family of detritivorous beetles (Tenebrionidae) using molecular dating and diversification analyses.ResultsAge estimates reveal an origin after the Triassic-Jurassic mass extinction (older than previously thought), followed by the diversification of major lineages during Pangaean and Gondwanan breakups. Dating analyses indicate that arid-adapted species diversified early, while most of the lineages that are adapted to more humid conditions diversified much later. Contrary to other insect groups, we found no support for a positive shift in diversification rates during the Cretaceous; instead there is evidence for an 8.5-fold increase in extinction rates that was not compensated by a joint increase in speciation rates.ConclusionsWe hypothesize that this pattern is better explained by the concomitant reduction of arid environments starting in the mid-Cretaceous, which likely negatively impacted the diversification of arid-adapted species that were predominant at that time.Electronic supplementary materialThe online version of this article (doi:10.1186/s12862-014-0220-1) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.

The peril of dating beetles

“…However, our estimates are more in agreement with the few recent studies that looked at divergence times of major beetle clades (e.g. Zhang & Zhou, ; Ahrens et al , ; Bloom et al , ; Kergoat et al , ; Kim & Farrell, ; Bocák et al , ; Gunter et al , ). Our estimates place the origin of Coleoptera during the Mid Carboniferous.…”

“…Staphylinidae: Late Triassic; Tenebrionidae: Early Jurassic) including the phytophagous groups (Middle Triassic origin of stem chrysomeloids and curculionoids, and Late Triassic origin of Chrysomelidae and Mid–Late Jurassic origins of Curculionidae and Cerambycidae). These results are largely congruent with the time tree analyses of phytophagous clades by Wang et al () based on a recently discovered fossil prionine beetle, and of Tenebrionidae by Kergoat et al () based on combination of fossil and geological calibrations.…”

The beetle tree of life reveals thatColeoptera survived end‐Permian mass extinction to diversify during theCretaceous terrestrial revolution

“…Similar relationships were recovered in the morphological study of Lawrence et al . () and several other molecular phylogenetic studies (Hunt et al ., ; Bocak et al ., ; Gunter et al ., ; (Kergoat et al ., 2014a,b). However, this contrasts with the traditional view that Tetratomidae, Mycetophagidae, Archeocrypticidae, Pterogeniidae and Ciidae represent ancestral forms within the superfamily (Crowson, ; Lawrence, ).…”

“…That their age estimates are similar is not surprising because they are based on largely overlapping 18S rRNA datasets. Molecular timetrees focused on individual series or superfamilies of beetles have now been estimated for the superfamilies Chrysomeloidea (Farrell, ; Gómez‐Zurita et al ., ), Curculionoidea (Farrell, ; McKenna et al ., ), Hydrophiloidea (Bloom et al ., ), Scarabaeoidea (Ahrens et al ., ) and Tenebrionoidea (Kergoat et al ., 2014a).…”

Documenting tenebrionid diversity: progress on Blaps Fabricius (Coleoptera, Tenebrionidae, Tenebrioninae, Blaptini) systematics, with the description of five new species

“…The family currently consists of nine subfamilies, 96 tribes and 2300 genera (Matthews et al 2010), some of which are highly diverse (e.g., the genus Strongylium Kirby, 1819 encompasses more than 1000 species). One of these species-rich genera is Blaps Fabricius, 1775, which belongs to the tribe Blaptini Leach, 1815 within the polyphyletic subfamily Tenebrioninae Latreille, 1802 (Kergoat et al 2014a(Kergoat et al , 2014b. The tribe Blaptini consists of about 500 species, divided into five subtribes and 28 genera (Medvedev 2001(Medvedev , 2007Medvedev & Merkl 2002).…”