Several shifts from ancestral conifer feeding to angiosperm feeding have been implicated in the unparalleled diversification of beetle species. The single largest angiosperm-feeding beetle clade occurs in the weevils, and comprises the family Curculionidae and relatives. Most authorities confidently place the bark beetles (Scolytidae) within this radiation of angiosperm feeders. However, some c...

Incorporation of fossils into biogeographic studies can have a profound effect on the conclusions that result, particularly when fossil ranges are nonoverlapping with extant ranges. This is the case in archaeid spiders, where there are known fossils from the Northern Hemisphere, yet all living members are restricted to the Southern Hemisphere. To better understand the biogeographic patterns of ...

New Zealand biodiversity has often been viewed as Gondwanan in origin and age, but it is increasingly apparent from molecular studies that diversification, and in many cases origination of lineages, postdate the break-up of Gondwanaland. Relatively few studies of New Zealand animal species radiations have as yet been reported, and here we consider the species-rich genus of carabid beetles, Meco...

This review article summarizes the recent work done in India on fossil vertebrates from the Mesozoic-early Paleogene interval, with focus on the past five years. Advances made during this period highlight the importance of India’s vertebrate fossil record in our understanding of the origin and evolutionary history of several vertebrate groups and the dynamics of intercontinental faunal dispersa...

Biogeographic analysis of Crocidiinae (Diptera, Bombyliidae): finding congruence among morphological, molecular, fossil and paleogeographical data. Biogeographic studies dealing with Bombyliidae are rare in the literature and no information is available on its origin and early diversification. In this study, we found evidence from molecular phylogeny and from fossil record supporting a Middle J...

Despite having single stranded DNA genomes that are replicated by host DNA polymerases, viruses in the family Geminiviridae are apparently evolving as rapidly as some RNA viruses. The observed substitution rates of geminiviruses in the genera Begomovirus and Mastrevirus are so high that the entire family could conceivably have originated less than a million years ago (MYA). However, the existen...

Between 4th and 18th March 2014, an international group of biologists carried out a hydrobiological expedition to the Ounianga-Tibesti area of northern Chad (Africa). The Tibesti is a desert volcanic area, intersected by the beds of ancient rivers which were active in the Tertiary. In deep canyons there are small water bodies (gueltas/aguelmans), fed by rain and spring water. They are rich in z...

A unified understanding of >390 Myr of insect evolution requires insight into their origin. Molecular clocks are widely applied for evolutionary dating, but clocks for the class Insecta have remained elusive. We now define a robust nucleotide and amino acid mitochondrial molecular clock encompassing five insect orders, including the Blattaria (cockroaches), Orthoptera (crickets and locusts), He...

Evolution of sedimentary basins took place in the Barmer, Jaisalmer and Bikaner regions during K-T (Cretaceous-Tertiary) time in western Rajasthan, India. These intra-cratonic rift basins developed under an extensional tectonic regime from early Jurassic to Tertiary time. Rift evolution resulted in alkaline magmatism at the rift margins. This magmatism is dated at 68.5 Ma and has been considere...