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1. 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 (September 2022, Insect Systematics and Diversity)

   Yoshizawa, Kazunori (Ed.)

   Abstract 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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2. Seed fossil record of Solanaceae revisited

   https://doi.org/10.1002/tax.70096  

   Deanna, Rocío; Hvalj, Aleksej Vladimirovič; Martinetto, Edoardo; Knapp, Sandra; Sadowski, Eva‐Maria; Manchester, Steven; Campos, Abel; Fernandez, Vincent; Barboza, Gloria E; Sauquet, Hervé; et al (February 2026, TAXON)

   Abstract The fossil record for Solanaceae has a complex taxonomic history, with many species originally described in the family being subsequently shown to belong in other plant families. In this work, we present an in‐depth analysis of the nightshade seed fossil record, which corresponds to the largest amount of fossil material for the family. We re‐examined 110 fossil seeds previously assigned either to one of the six described taxa or unplaced within the family. All fossils were imaged and measured for 15 discrete and continuous characters, and a subset of 22 well‐preserved specimens was additionally subjected to micro‐CT scanning. In parallel, we scored the same set of characters for seeds from 354 extant taxa of Solanaceae. We carried out a multivariate analysis of the combined extinct and extant dataset to visualize the placement of fossil seeds within Solanaceae seed morphospace. This analysis revealed a wide spread of fossils across morphospace, including a variety of shapes, sizes and testal wall features. For one fossil‐taxon (Hyoscyamosperma daturoidesgen. & sp. nov.), the micro‐CT images confirmed the presence of an elaiosome, otherwise only known in the family from the genusDatura. Based on these analyses, we recircumscribe two specie, describe six new species and six new genera, doubling the number of fossil seed species in the family. The broad geographic and stratigraphic distribution of these diverse taxa, from Eocene North America and Europe to Pleistocene Eurasia, support the notion that the Solanaceae is likely a family of a Late Cretaceous origin that attained nearly a cosmopolitan distribution by the Eocene. 

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3. Late Cretaceous origins for major nightshade lineages from total-evidence timetree analysis

   https://doi.org/10.1093/aob/mcag011  

   González-Ramírez, Ixchel S; Deanna, Rocío; Smith, Stacey D (March 2026, Annals of Botany)

   Abstract Background and AimsThe timing of the radiation of nightshades (Solanaceae) has been contentious in the literature, with estimates of the crown age ranging from ca. 30 to 70 million years ago (mid-Oligocene to Late Cretaceous). The tempo of diversification of major lineages within the family (e.g. berries, tobaccos) has been equally challenging to resolve, in large part because of the paucity of fossil information. Recently described fossils present an opportunity to revisit the timing of nightshade diversification using more powerful model-based methods. Here, we simultaneously infer divergence times within Solanaceae and the placement of a select set of well-preserved and morphologically diverse fruit and seed fossils. MethodsWe assembled a family-wide morphological dataset, including 17 categorical and eight continuous characters, for 134 living and 14 fossil Solanaceae taxa, as well as sequence data for the extant taxa. We implemented a Bayesian total-evidence dating analysis in RevBayes using a time-homogeneous and a time-heterogeneous fossilized birth–death model and models of character evolution for each type of data. Key ResultsThe origin of Solanaceae was ∼98 million years ago, and the major splits were roughly three-fold older than previously estimated. Although the 14 fossil taxa were phylogenetically placed with different degrees of confidence, we identified a fruit fossil and a seed fossil whose affinities were strongly supported. Moreover, most of the fossils lacking a precise placement were nevertheless confidently inferred to belong to the large berry clade. ConclusionsOur study provides an example of how a sophisticated model used on a carefully assembled dataset can shed light on the timing of the evolution of a group, while accounting for phylogenetic uncertainty. The timetree we present here provides a temporal framework for further research, from comparative genomics and patterns of diversification to trait evolution and biogeography. 

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4. Cretaceous pollen cone with three‐dimensional preservation sheds light on the morphological evolution of cycads in deep time

   https://doi.org/10.1111/nph.18852  

   Elgorriaga, Andres; Atkinson, Brian A. (May 2023, New Phytologist)

   Summary The Cycadales are an ancient and charismatic group of seed plants. However, their morphological evolution in deep time is poorly understood. While molecular divergence time analyses estimate a Cretaceous origin for most major living cycad clades, much of the extant diversity is inferred to be a result of Neogene diversifications. This leads to long branches throughout the cycadalean phylogeny that, with few exceptions, have yet to be rectified by unequivocal fossil cycads. We report a permineralized pollen cone from the Campanian Holz Shale located in Silverado Canyon, CA, USA ( c. 80 million yr ago). This fossil was studied via serial sectioning, SEM, 3D reconstruction and phylogenetic analyses. Microsporophyll and pollen morphology indicate this cone is assignable to Skyttegaardia , a recently described genus based on disarticulated lignitized microsporophylls from the Early Cretaceous of Denmark. Data from this new species, including a simple cone architecture, anatomical details and vasculature organization, indicate cycadalean affinities for Skyttegaardia . Phylogenetic analyses support this assignment and recover Skyttegaardia as crown‐group Cycadales, nested within Zamiaceae. Our findings support a Cretaceous diversification for crown‐group Zamiaceae, which included the evolution of morphological divergent extinct taxa with unique traits that have yet to be widely identified in the fossil record. 

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5. Combining fossil taxa with and without morphological data improves dated phylogenetic analyses

   https://doi.org/10.1098/rsbl.2025.0205  

   Nikolic, Mark C; Warnock, Rachel_C M; Hopkins, Melanie J (August 2025, Biology Letters)

   The fossilized birth–death (FBD) model has become an increasingly popular method for inferring dated phylogenies. It is especially useful for incorporating fossil data into such analyses, integrating fossils along with their age information directly into the tree as tips or sampled ancestors. Two approaches are common for placing fossil taxa in trees: inference based on morphological character data or using taxonomic constraints to control their topological placement. These approaches have historically been treated as alternatives, and for phylogenetic inference of entirely extinct organisms, additional related fossil taxa other than those for which morphology is available are generally overlooked. Here, for the first time, we implement a combined approach on an empirical dataset for a group of trilobites. We use a morphological matrix and ages for 56 taxa and age information for another 196 taxa from the Paleobiology Database. To evaluate the effects of a combined approach, we conducted FBD-dated phylogenetic analyses using the combined dataset with morphology and taxonomic constraints and compared them to analyses of taxa with morphology alone. We find that a combined approach yields topologies that are more stratigraphically congruent, substantially more precise parameter estimates (e.g. divergence times) and more informative tree distributions. These findings are a consequence of the substantial increase in stratigraphic age information and a more representative sample of the temporal distributions of the group. 

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