Tuesday, May 1, 2007

Dobler & Muller 2000

Dobler, S. and J.K. Muller. 2000. Resolving phylogeny at the family level by mitochondrial Cytochrome Oxidase sequences: phylogeny of carrion beetles (Coleoptera: Silphidae).

In this paper the authors use COI, COII, and tRNA-leu to reconstruct the phylogeny of the Silphidae. Important points:

1) used 23 species from 13 genera
2) the Agyrtidae is justified as a separate family based on the phylogeny
3) the genus Silpha was not monophyletic
4) Pseudosilphites triassicus, a coleopteran fossil from the Triassic, is morphologically similar to silphids and possibly an ancestor of the Staphylinoidea (Zeuner, 1930)
5) compared parsimony and likelihood trees

This paper also briefly discusses the biogeography of the family:
-Silphidae 'apparently' originated in Palearctic because it has the most genera and highest # of species (Peck and Anderson 1985). [center of origin criteria #'s 1 and 2].
The phylogeny in this paper also agrees with a Palearctic origin.

*This is the first published phylogeny of the Silphidae.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

the Agyrtidae is justified as a separate family based on the phylogeny

Agyrtidae is justified as a separate clade based on the phylogeny.

Ranks like "family" cannot be justified by any objective criteria. Ever.

Tonya said...

Good point David. Those words were taken straight from the abstract. I should have caught that!