Most modern-day groups of beetles have been around since the time of the dinosaurs and have been diversifying ever since, says new research out in Science today.
There are approximately 350,000 species of beetles on Earth, and probably millions more yet to be discovered, accounting for about 25% of all known life forms on the planet. The reason for this large number of beetle species has been debated by scientists for many years, but never resolved.
Now a team of scientists has shown that large numbers of modern-day beetle lineages evolved very soon after the first beetles originated, and have persisted ever since. Many modern-day lineages first appeared during the Jurassic period, when the major groups of dinosaurs appeared too.
Lead scientist on the study, Professor Alfried Vogler from Imperial College London’s Department of Life Sciences and the Natural History Museum’s Department of Entomology, explains: “The large number of beetle species existing today could very well be a direct result of this early evolution and the fact that there has been a very high rate of survival and continuous diversification of many lineages since then.”
The team behind today’s new study – the most extensive of its kind to date - used DNA sequencing and fossil records to compile a comprehensive evolutionary ‘family tree’ for beetles. By comparing DNA sequences from 1,880 beetle species, the scientists were able to group beetle species that are descended from a common ancestor, enabling them to build an evolutionary tree for all the species included. Fossils of known ages were then used to date key moments of evolution and diversification on the tree.
Prior to this study the survival success of beetles had been attributed to herbivory - feeding on plants - and the rise of flowering plants in the Cretaceous era, which started some 140 million years ago. However, mapping species numbers onto the evolutionary tree shows that many modern beetle lineages significantly pre-date the appearance of the first flowering plants.
Beetles have displayed an exceptional ability to seize new ecological opportunities and develop a great range of life styles and feeding types, explains Professor Vogler. “Unlike the dinosaurs which dwindled to extinction, beetles survived because of their ecological diversity and adaptability,” he says.
The scientific team says that understanding the evolution of beetles is an important part of understanding the natural world: “With beetles forming such a large proportion of all known species, learning about their relationships and evolution gives us important new insights into the origin of biodiversity and how beetles have triumphed over the course of nearly 300 million years,” said Professor Vogler.
Source: Imperial College London
Related stories:
Ice beetles impacted by climate change
In the summer of 1968, Dave Kavanaugh set off on a hike that would change the course of his life. As a second-year medical student at the University of Colorado, he had joined a climbing club with a few members of the biophysics department, and the group had set their sights on Gray's Peak—the ninth highest mountain in Colorado. Kavanaugh, who has never been able to do anything slowly, scampered up to the top of the peak in record time and sat down to wait for the rest of the group. As he peeled an orange and gazed out at the surrounding terrain, a sudden movement caught his eye.
Helicopters fly to the rescue of Swedish beetles
Sweden will use helicopters to come to the rescue of a small beetle thought to have disappeared but recently discovered in the northeast, regional officials said Thursday.
Colonies in collapse: What's causing massive honeybee die-offs?
“To the bee, a flower is a fountain of life, and to the flower, a bee is a messenger of love,” wrote poet Kahlil Gibran. Whether or not love is involved in the exchange, the evolutionary dance between pollen-transporting honey bees and nectar-producing flowers is one of nature’s most extraordinary symbiotic relationships, a hundred million years in the making.
Research shows why parents are born and not made
Research published today reveals for the first time that the different roles of mothers and fathers are influenced by genetics. The study, by the Universities of Exeter and Edinburgh, shows how variation in where males and females put their parenting effort reflects different genetic influences for each sex.
Early planting lets farmers be both mean and green, study shows
(PhysOrg.com) -- Farmers can be both mean and green when protecting their canola fields from a pesky insect that poses a chronic threat, says a University of Alberta researcher.
Cross kingdom conflicts on a beetle's back
Researchers from Harvard Medical School and the University of Madison-Wisconsin have discovered how beetles and bacteria form a symbiotic and mutualistic relationship—one that ultimately results in the destruction of pine forests. In addition, they've identified the specific molecule that drives this whole phenomenon.
Vegetation hardly affected by extreme flood events
Extreme flood events in floodplain grasslands affect carabid beetles and molluscs more than plants. This is the finding of a study by biologists from the Helmholtz Centre for Environmental Research (UFZ), TU Berlin, the German Federal Institute of Hydrology (BfG), ÖKON Kallmünz and the ILN Bühl, following several years of observations before and after the Elbe floods of August 2002.
Insight into the evolution of parasitism
Scientists at the Max Planck Institute for Developmental Biology, together with American colleagues, have decoded the genome of the Pristionchus pacificus nematode, thereby gaining insight into the evolution of parasitism. In their work, which has been published in the latest edition of
Nature Genetics, the scientists from Professor Ralf J. Sommer's department in Tübingen have shown that the genome of the nematode consists of a surprisingly large number of genes, some of which have unexpected functions.