engleski

Molecular phylogenetic methods in entomology - new insights on the evolutionary relationships of hexapods and arthropods

Traditional phylogenetic and taxonomic methods based on examining and comparing morphological characters have in the last few decades been supplemented or even replaced by molecular phylogenetic methods that utilize a great number of molecular markers - mitochondrial and nuclear genes and genomic regions. Molecular phylogeny has profoundly changed our perception of the taxonomic position of great number of hexapod taxa and posed some intriguing questions on the evolution of basal hexapod lineages, as well as hexapods in relation to other arthropod higher-level taxa (crustaceans, myriapods and chelicerates). Regarding the question of relationships between entognathous hexapod taxa, some of the analyses yielded monophyletic Ellipura, while the others suggest the non-monophyly of Entognatha. Recent investigations of both molecular and morphological data support a closer relationship between hexapods and crustaceans, a so called “Pancrustacea” clade, opposing the classical “Tracheata” (myriapods + hexapods) hypothesis. Some of the results even suggest the reciprocal paraphyly of Crustacea and Hexapoda. Regarding the other two major arthropod clades, myriapods and chelicerates, some investigations support the sister group of Pancrustacea + Myriapoda (so called “Mandibulata”), while in some analyses support was found for the pairing of myriapods with chelicerates (so called “ Paradoxopoda” or “Myriochelata”). These hypotheses would imply that water-to-land transition occurred at least three times during the evolution of the Arthropoda. All these new phylogenetic topologies still need to be properly evaluated and compared with classical hypotheses about the evolutionary relationships of hexapods and arthropods.

Hexapoda ; Arthropoda ; insects ; Ellipura ; Entognatha ; Pancrustacea ;

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