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      Widespread mermithid nematode parasitism of Cretaceous insects

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          Abstract

          Mermithid nematodes are obligate invertebrate parasites dating back to the Early Cretaceous. Their fossil record is sparse, especially before the Cenozoic, thus little is known about their early host associations. This study reports 16 new mermithids associated with their insect hosts from mid-Cretaceous Kachin amber, 12 of which include previously unknown hosts. These fossils indicate that mermithid parasitism of invertebrates was already widespread and played an important role in the mid-Cretaceous terrestrial ecosystem. Remarkably, three hosts (bristletails, barklice, and perforissid planthoppers) were previously unknown to be parasitized by mermithids both past and present. Furthermore, our study shows that in contrast to their Cenozoic counterparts, Cretaceous nematodes including mermithids are more abundant in non-holometabolous insects. This result suggests that nematodes had not completely exploited the dominant Holometabola as their hosts until the Cenozoic. This study reveals what appears to be a vanished history of nematodes that parasitized Cretaceous insects.

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          Phylogenomics resolves the timing and pattern of insect evolution.

          Insects are the most speciose group of animals, but the phylogenetic relationships of many major lineages remain unresolved. We inferred the phylogeny of insects from 1478 protein-coding genes. Phylogenomic analyses of nucleotide and amino acid sequences, with site-specific nucleotide or domain-specific amino acid substitution models, produced statistically robust and congruent results resolving previously controversial phylogenetic relations hips. We dated the origin of insects to the Early Ordovician [~479 million years ago (Ma)], of insect flight to the Early Devonian (~406 Ma), of major extant lineages to the Mississippian (~345 Ma), and the major diversification of holometabolous insects to the Early Cretaceous. Our phylogenomic study provides a comprehensive reliable scaffold for future comparative analyses of evolutionary innovations among insects. Copyright © 2014, American Association for the Advancement of Science.
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            Soil nematode abundance and functional group composition at a global scale

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              Evolutionary History of the Hymenoptera.

              Hymenoptera (sawflies, wasps, ants, and bees) are one of four mega-diverse insect orders, comprising more than 153,000 described and possibly up to one million undescribed extant species [1, 2]. As parasitoids, predators, and pollinators, Hymenoptera play a fundamental role in virtually all terrestrial ecosystems and are of substantial economic importance [1, 3]. To understand the diversification and key evolutionary transitions of Hymenoptera, most notably from phytophagy to parasitoidism and predation (and vice versa) and from solitary to eusocial life, we inferred the phylogeny and divergence times of all major lineages of Hymenoptera by analyzing 3,256 protein-coding genes in 173 insect species. Our analyses suggest that extant Hymenoptera started to diversify around 281 million years ago (mya). The primarily ectophytophagous sawflies are found to be monophyletic. The species-rich lineages of parasitoid wasps constitute a monophyletic group as well. The little-known, species-poor Trigonaloidea are identified as the sister group of the stinging wasps (Aculeata). Finally, we located the evolutionary root of bees within the apoid wasp family "Crabronidae." Our results reveal that the extant sawfly diversity is largely the result of a previously unrecognized major radiation of phytophagous Hymenoptera that did not lead to wood-dwelling and parasitoidism. They also confirm that all primarily parasitoid wasps are descendants of a single endophytic parasitoid ancestor that lived around 247 mya. Our findings provide the basis for a natural classification of Hymenoptera and allow for future comparative analyses of Hymenoptera, including their genomes, morphology, venoms, and parasitoid and eusocial life styles.
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                Author and article information

                Contributors
                Role: Reviewing Editor
                Role: Senior Editor
                Journal
                eLife
                Elife
                eLife
                eLife
                eLife Sciences Publications, Ltd
                2050-084X
                14 July 2023
                2023
                : 12
                : e86283
                Affiliations
                [1 ] State Key Laboratory of Palaeobiology and Stratigraphy, Nanjing Institute of Geology and Palaeontology and Center for Excellence in Life and Paleoenvironment, Chinese Academy of Sciences ( https://ror.org/019av8481) Nanjing China
                [2 ] University of Chinese Academy of Sciences ( https://ror.org/05qbk4x57) Beijing China
                [3 ] Department of Integrative Biology, Oregon State University ( https://ror.org/00ysfqy60) Corvallis United States
                [4 ] Beijing Xiachong Amber Museum Beijing China
                Museum für Naturkunde ( https://ror.org/052d1a351) Germany
                Pennsylvania State University ( https://ror.org/04p491231) United States
                Museum für Naturkunde ( https://ror.org/052d1a351) Germany
                Museum für Naturkunde ( https://ror.org/052d1a351) Germany
                Museum für Naturkunde ( https://ror.org/052d1a351) Germany
                Author information
                https://orcid.org/0000-0002-4855-6185
                https://orcid.org/0000-0002-8001-9937
                Article
                86283
                10.7554/eLife.86283
                10348742
                37449724
                ba88c94a-71c8-4186-80dc-2e6e52d4c24d
                © 2023, Luo et al

                This article is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use and redistribution provided that the original author and source are credited.

                History
                : 18 January 2023
                : 24 May 2023
                Funding
                Funded by: FundRef http://dx.doi.org/10.13039/501100001809, National Natural Science Foundation of China;
                Award ID: 42125201
                Award Recipient :
                Funded by: FundRef http://dx.doi.org/10.13039/501100002367, Chinese Academy of Sciences;
                Award ID: Strategic Priority Research Program XDB26000000
                Award Recipient :
                Funded by: Second Tibetan Plateau Scientific Expedition and Research;
                Award ID: 2019QZKK0706
                Award Recipient :
                Funded by: FundRef http://dx.doi.org/10.13039/501100002367, CAS President's International Fellowship Initiative;
                Award Recipient :
                Funded by: UNESCO-IUGS;
                Award ID: IGCP Project 679
                Award Recipient :
                The funders had no role in study design, data collection and interpretation, or the decision to submit the work for publication.
                Categories
                Research Article
                Ecology
                Evolutionary Biology
                Custom metadata
                Sixteen new mermithid nematodes associated with their insect hosts are discovered from mid-Cretaceous Kachin amber and they are more abundant in non-holometabolous insect hosts, revealing what appears to be a vanished history of nematodes parasitism.

                Life sciences
                fossil,amber,nametode,insect,parasitism,cretaceous,none
                Life sciences
                fossil, amber, nametode, insect, parasitism, cretaceous, none

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