Fossil Constraints on the Timescale of Parasitic Helminth Evolution

Baets, Kenneth De; Dentzien‐Dias, Paula; Harrison, George W. M.; Littlewood, D. Timothy J.

doi:10.1007/978-3-030-42484-8_7

Cited by 12 publications

(4 citation statements)

References 201 publications

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“…Two different calibration approaches were used. In the first approach, performed with dataset III, we used published parasitic Platyhelminthes' fossil records (De Baets et al, 2015; De Baets et al, 2021; Dentzien‐Dias et al, 2013; Upeniece, 2011) along with a secondary calibration point (dos Reis et al, 2015). Fossil calibrations were set under a lognormal distribution.…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Three dispersal routes out of Africa: A puzzling biogeographical history in freshwater planarians

Solà

Leria

Stocchino

et al. 2022

Journal of Biogeography

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Aim Freshwater planarians may have a wide geographical range despite their assumed low vagility. Found across four continents, Dugesia may have either an ancient origin on a large palaeo landmass, followed by colonisation in different regions before continental fragmentation, or a more recent origin and subsequent transoceanic dispersal. We seek to resolve between these two hypotheses. Location Africa, Eurasia and Australasia. Taxon Genus Dugesia (Platyhelminthes: Tricladida: Dugesiidae). Methods We used data from the sequencing of six gene fragments and comprehensive taxonomic sampling of Dugesia from across its distribution range to reconstruct the phylogeny of this genus using maximum likelihood and bayesian inference methods. We conducted two phylogenetic dating analyses using Platyhelminthes fossils and palaeogeological events. Basing on the time‐calibrated molecular phylogenetic framework we evaluated the contribution of vicariance and dispersal to the biogeographical evolution of Dugesia. By reconstructing the ancestral areas and present‐day potential distribution using BioGeoBEARS and niche modelling, we elucidated the biogeographical history of the genus. Results The present‐day distribution of Dugesia is a result of different vicariance and dispersal events. However, we also found evidence of transoceanic dispersal. Consistent with previous hypotheses, Dugesia dates to the Upper Jurassic in the Afro‐Malagasy Gondwana region. We unveiled a novel biogeographical scenario for the genus, involving multiple events of colonisation in Eurasia from continental Africa via at least three dispersal routes. Main conclusions Dugesia is an ancient genus having reached its present distribution through a complex history of dispersal and vicariant events following its origin in southern Gondwana. Despite the low vagility of Dugesia, we found evidence of their overseas dispersal.

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Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Three dispersal routes out of Africa: A puzzling biogeographical history in freshwater planarians

Solà

Leria

Stocchino

et al. 2022

Journal of Biogeography

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“…Amber is a unique form of fossilization (Hsieh and Plotnick, 2020). Although amber is patchily distributed in space and time, it is still especially suitable for investigating the evolution of terrestrial parasites associated with arthropods (De Baets and Littlewood, 2015;Leung, 2017;De Baets et al, 2021;Leung, 2021). The high diversity of mermithid nematodes during the mid-Cretaceous as shown here provides a glimpse into the structure of ancient parasitic nematode-host associations and their evolution over the past 100 million years.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 86%

“…Hosts usually die when the mermthids exit, which is why mermithids have been widely studied as possible biological control agents, especially against aquatic stages of medically important insects like mosquito larvae (Petersen, 1985). Although mermithids kill their hosts like parasitoids, they are commonly considered as parasites like other nematodes (De Baets et al, 2021).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Widespread mermithid nematode parasitism of Cretaceous insects

Luo

Poinar

et al. 2023

Preprint

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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 statistical analyses show that in contrast to their Cenozoic counterparts, Cretaceous nematodes including mermithids are more abundant in heterometabolous insect hosts. This result suggests that nematodes have 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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“…Among these, the most well-known examples are in vertebrates (reptiles, birds and mammals) and of course arthropods, invertebrates with jointed legs and exoskeletons such as spiders and insects. Additionally, soft-bodied groups with generally poor fossil records [ 14 , 15 ], such as molluscs (including the land snails and slugs [ 16 ]), onychophorans (velvet worms [ 17 ]), annelids (including earthworms [ 18 ]), nematoids (roundworms and horsehair worms, including many parasitic groups that have followed their hosts on land [ 18 , 19 , 20 , 21 ]), tardigrades (water bears [ 22 ]), and platyhelminthes (flatworms [ 23 ]) contain land-living lineages, but these are mostly dependent on moisture-rich terrestrial environments for survival. Life on land requires a series of adaptations that may be paralleled across different groups—we can refer to this as terrestrialization: the process by which aquatic organisms adapt to terrestrial life.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Was There a Cambrian Explosion on Land? The Case of Arthropod Terrestrialization

Tihelka

Howard

Cai

et al. 2022

Biology

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Arthropods, the most diverse form of macroscopic life in the history of the Earth, originated in the sea. Since the early Cambrian, at least ~518 million years ago, these animals have dominated the oceans of the world. By the Silurian–Devonian, the fossil record attests to arthropods becoming the first animals to colonize land, However, a growing body of molecular dating and palaeontological evidence suggests that the three major terrestrial arthropod groups (myriapods, hexapods, and arachnids), as well as vascular plants, may have invaded land as early as the Cambrian–Ordovician. These dates precede the oldest fossil evidence of those groups and suggest an unrecorded continental “Cambrian explosion” a hundred million years prior to the formation of early complex terrestrial ecosystems in the Silurian–Devonian. We review the palaeontological, phylogenomic, and molecular clock evidence pertaining to the proposed Cambrian terrestrialization of the arthropods. We argue that despite the challenges posed by incomplete preservation and the scarcity of early Palaeozoic terrestrial deposits, the discrepancy between molecular clock estimates and the fossil record is narrower than is often claimed. We discuss strategies for closing the gap between molecular clock estimates and fossil data in the evolution of early ecosystems on land

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Fossil Constraints on the Timescale of Parasitic Helminth Evolution

Cited by 12 publications

References 201 publications

Three dispersal routes out of Africa: A puzzling biogeographical history in freshwater planarians

Three dispersal routes out of Africa: A puzzling biogeographical history in freshwater planarians

Widespread mermithid nematode parasitism of Cretaceous insects

Was There a Cambrian Explosion on Land? The Case of Arthropod Terrestrialization

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