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1. Phylogenomic re-evaluation of Triaenonychoidea (Opiliones : Laniatores), and systematics of Triaenonychidae, including new families, genera and species

   https://doi.org/10.1071/IS20047  

   Derkarabetian, Shahan ; Baker, Caitlin M. ; Hedin, Marshal ; Prieto, Carlos E. ; Giribet, Gonzalo ( January 2021 , Invertebrate Systematics)

   null (Ed.)

   The Opiliones superfamily Triaenonychoidea currently includes two families, the monogeneric New Zealand–endemic Synthetonychiidae Forster, 1954 and Triaenonychidae Sørensen, 1886, a diverse family distributed mostly throughout the temperate Gondwanan terranes, with ~110 genera and ~500 species and subspecies currently described. Traditionally, Triaenonychidae has been divided into subfamilies diagnosed by very few morphological characters largely derived from the troublesome ‘Roewerian system’ of morphology, and classifications based on this system led to many complications. Recent research within Triaenonychoidea using morphology and traditional multilocus data has shown multiple deeply divergent lineages, non-monophyly of Triaenonychidae, and non-monophyly of subfamilies, necessitating a revision based on phylogenomic data. We used sequence capture of ultraconserved elements across 164 samples to create a 50% taxon occupancy matrix with 704 loci. Using phylogenomic and morphological examinations, we explored family-level relationships within Triaenonychoidea, including describing two new families: (1) Lomanellidae Mendes & Derkarabetian, fam. nov., consisting of Lomanella Pocock, 1903, and a newly described genus Abaddon Derkarabetian & Baker, gen. nov. with one species, A. despoliator Derkarabetian, sp. nov.; and (2) the elevation to family of Buemarinoidae Karaman, 2019, consisting of Buemarinoa Roewer, 1956, Fumontana Shear, 1977, Flavonuncia Lawrence, 1959, and a newly described genus Turonychus Derkarabetian, Prieto & Giribet, gen. nov., with one species, T. fadriquei Derkarabetian, Prieto & Giribet, sp. nov. With our dataset we also explored phylogenomic relationships within Triaenonychidae with an extensive taxon set including samples representing ~80% of the genus-level diversity. Based on our results we (1) discuss systematics of this family including the historical use of subfamilies, (2) reassess morphology in the context of our phylogeny, (3) hypothesise placement for all unsampled genera, (4) highlight lineages most in need of taxonomic revision, and (5) provide an updated species-level checklist. Aside from describing new taxa, our study provides the phylogenomic context necessary for future evolutionary and systematic research across this diverse lineage.ZooBank Registration: urn:lsid:zoobank.org:pub:81683834-98AB-43AA-B25A-C28C6A404F41 

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2. Morphology-based Phylogenetic Analysis of Membracoidea (Hemiptera: Cicadomorpha) With Placement of Fossil Taxa and Description of a New Subfamily

   https://doi.org/10.1093/isd/ixac021  

   Dietrich, Christopher H. ; Dmitriev, Dmitry A. ; Takiya, Daniela M. ; Thomas, M. Jared ; Webb, Michael D. ; Zahniser, James N. ; Zhang, Yalin ; Yoshizawa, ed., Kazunori ( October 2022 , Insect Systematics and Diversity)

   Recently discovered amber-preserved fossil Cicadellidae exhibit combinations of morphological traits not observed in the modern fauna and have the potential to shed new light on the evolution of this highly diverse family. To place the fossils explicitly within a phylogenetic context, representatives of five extinct genera from Cretaceous Myanmar amber, and one from Eocene Baltic amber were incorporated into a matrix comprising 229 discrete morphological characters and representatives of all modern subfamilies. Phylogenetic analyses yielded well resolved and largely congruent estimates that support the monophyly of most previously recognized cicadellid subfamilies and indicate that the treehoppers are derived from a lineage of Cicadellidae. Instability in the morphology-based phylogenies is mainly confined to deep internal splits that received low branch support in one or more analyses and also were not consistently resolved by recent phylogenomic analyses. Placement of fossil taxa is mostly stable across analyses. Three new Cretaceous leafhopper genera, Burmotettix gen. nov., Kachinella gen nov., and Viraktamathus gen. nov., consistently form a monophyletic group distinct from extant leafhopper subfamilies and are placed in Burmotettiginae subfam. nov. Extinct Cretaceous fossils previously placed in Ledrinae and Signoretiinae are recovered as sister to modern representatives of these groups. Eomegophthalmus Dietrich and Gonçalves from Baltic amber consistently groups with a lineage comprising treehoppers, Megophthalminae, Ulopinae, and Eurymelinae but its position is unstable. Overall, the morphology-based phylogenetic estimates agree with recent phylogenies based on molecular data alone suggesting that morphological traits recently used to diagnose subfamilies are generally informative of phylogenetic relationships within this group.

    

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3. Hyainailourine and teratodontine cranial material from the late Eocene of Egypt and the application of parsimony and Bayesian methods to the phylogeny and biogeography of Hyaenodonta (Placentalia, Mammalia)

   https://doi.org/10.7717/peerj.2639  

   Borths, Matthew R. ; Holroyd, Patricia A. ; Seiffert, Erik R. ( November 2016 , PeerJ)

   Hyaenodonta is a diverse, extinct group of carnivorous mammals that included weasel- to rhinoceros-sized species. The oldest-known hyaenodont fossils are from the middle Paleocene of North Africa and the antiquity of the group in Afro-Arabia led to the hypothesis that it originated there and dispersed to Asia, Europe, and North America. Here we describe two new hyaenodont species based on the oldest hyaenodont cranial specimens known from Afro-Arabia. The material was collected from the latest Eocene Locality 41 (L-41, ∼34 Ma) in the Fayum Depression, Egypt.Akhnatenavus nefertiticyonsp. nov. has specialized, hypercarnivorous molars and an elongate cranial vault. InA. nefertiticyonthe tallest, piercing cusp on M¹–M²is the paracone.Brychotherium ephalmosgen. et sp. nov. has more generalized molars that retain the metacone and complex talonids. InB. ephalmosthe tallest, piercing cusp on M¹–M²is the metacone. We incorporate this new material into a series of phylogenetic analyses using a character-taxon matrix that includes novel dental, cranial, and postcranial characters, and samples extensively from the global record of the group. The phylogenetic analysis includes the first application of Bayesian methods to hyaenodont relationships.B. ephalmosis consistently placed within Teratodontinae, an Afro-Arabian clade with several generalist and hypercarnivorous forms, andAkhnatenavusis consistently recovered in Hyainailourinae as part of an Afro-Arabian radiation. The phylogenetic results suggest that hypercarnivory evolved independently three times within Hyaenodonta: in Teratodontinae, in Hyainailourinae, and in Hyaenodontinae. Teratodontines are consistently placed in a close relationship with Hyainailouridae (Hyainailourinae + Apterodontinae) to the exclusion of “proviverrines,” hyaenodontines, and several North American clades, and we propose that the superfamily Hyainailouroidea be used to describe this relationship. Using the topologies recovered from each phylogenetic method, we reconstructed the biogeographic history of Hyaenodonta using parsimony optimization (PO), likelihood optimization (LO), and Bayesian Binary Markov chain Monte Carlo (MCMC) to examine support for the Afro-Arabian origin of Hyaenodonta. Across all analyses, we found that Hyaenodonta most likely originated in Europe, rather than Afro-Arabia. The clade is estimated by tip-dating analysis to have undergone a rapid radiation in the Late Cretaceous and Paleocene; a radiation currently not documented by fossil evidence. During the Paleocene, lineages are reconstructed as dispersing to Asia, Afro-Arabia, and North America. The place of origin of Hyainailouroidea is likely Afro-Arabia according to the Bayesian topologies but it is ambiguous using parsimony. All topologies support the constituent clades–Hyainailourinae, Apterodontinae, and Teratodontinae–as Afro-Arabian and tip-dating estimates that each clade is established in Afro-Arabia by the middle Eocene.

    

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4. A unique winged euthycarcinoid from the Permian of Antarctica

   https://doi.org/10.1017/jpa.2017.28  

   Collette, Joseph H. ; Isbell, John L. ; Miller, Molly F. ( September 2017 , Journal of Paleontology)

   Abstract Euthycarcinoid arthropods (Cambrian–Triassic) were likely the first animals to transition from oceanic to freshwater and emergent environments. Although their basic bauplan is well known, they have a poor fossil record because their non-sclerotized exoskeleton was rarely preserved. Euthycarcinoids’ unusual morphology (varying numbers of body segments, seemingly dichotomous possession of either mandibles or a labrum, specialized or generalized limbs, and possession by some euthycarcinoid species of sternal pores—structures possibly analogous to coxal vesicles in myriapods) contribute to uncertainty regarding their relationship to other arthropod groups; while their poor fossil record masks the evolutionary transitions within and between the separate realms they inhabited (marine, freshwater, emergent). A new euthycarcinoid from a Permian polar proglacial lake is described herein that is morphologically unlike all other euthycarcinoids, and interpreted as being well adapted for a nekton-benthic lifestyle. Antarcticarcinus pagoda n. gen. n. sp. possesses a pair of large wing-like processes that project laterally from the preabdominal dorsal exoskeleton. A trace fossil from the overlying Mackellar Formation, cf. Orbiculichnus , which was previously interpreted as having been produced by insects taking off or landing on wet sediments, is reinterpreted herein as being produced by A . pagoda n. gen. n. sp. due to the high degree of morphological similarity between traces and body fossils. This occurrence indicates that euthycarcinoids were able to adapt to life in temperate freshwater environments, while possible subaerial adaptations hint at an ability to breathe air. Indeed, if euthycarcinoids could breathe air, Cambrian terrestrial forays and rapid transition (by the Ordovician) into freshwater environments might be explained. 

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5. Systematics and phylogeny of Plio-Pleistocene species of Turritellidae (Gastropoda) from Florida and the Atlantic Coastal Plain

   Friend, Dana S. ; Anderson, Brendan M. ; Altier, E. ; Petsios, E. ; Portell, R. W. ; Allmon, W. D. ( April 2023 , Bulletins of American paleontology)

   Hendricks, Jonathan R. (Ed.)

   Turritellid gastropods are among the most widespread, abundant, and diverse mollusks in Plio-Pleistocene deposits of the Atlantic coastal plain and Florida, with at least 46 species and subspecies described over almost two centuries. Yet the systematic status of these common fossil species and their phylogenetic relationships—to each other and to turritellids living today in the western Atlantic—have never been investigated in detail. We make use of recent molecular phylogenetic work on living turritellids and new analyses of shell characters to review the group from this time interval to the present in a comprehensive phylogenetic analysis and assessment of their evolutionary history in the region. We conclude that 20 fossil and two Recent species are valid. Four of these species are placed in the genus Torcula Gray, 1847; five in Caviturritella new genus, and eleven in “Turritella” sensu lato. We identify Torcula perattenuata as the likely direct ancestor of one of the two turritellid species living today off the southeastern U.S. coast, Torcula exoleta, and we elucidate the fossil record of the other extant species, “Turritella” perexilis (senior synonym of Turritella acropora). We show that Caviturritella was extirpated from the United States Gulf and Atlantic coastal plains in the Early Pleistocene but is still represented in the western Atlantic by the living species C. variegata in the southern Caribbean. We also present the first detailed treatment of Plio-Pleistocene turritellid fossils from Georgia. Our analysis shows that the Plio-Pleistocene Pinecrest beds of Florida contain 18 co-occurring turritellid species, which is the highest turritellid species diversity in one formation known in the fossil record. 

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