Fossil age data and molecular sequences are increasingly combined to establish a
timescale for the Tree of Life. Arthropods, as the most species-rich and morphologically …

Understanding animal terrestrialization, the process through which animals colonized the
land, is crucial to clarify extant biodiversity and biological adaptation. Arthropoda (insects …

Apart from sharing common ancestry with chordates, sea cucumbers exhibit a unique
morphology and exceptional regenerative capacity. Here we present the complete genome …

Protists, the micro-eukaryotes that are neither plants, animals nor fungi build up the greatest
part of eukaryotic diversity on Earth. Yet, their evolutionary histories and patterns are still …

Abstract Waterfleas (Crustacea: Branchiopoda: Cladocera) are among the most successful
invertebrates in current freshwater ecosystems, occupying a wide range of niches …

Temporary lentic wetlands are becoming increasingly recognised for their collective role in
contributing to biodiversity at the landscape scale. In southern Africa, a region with a high …

Biologists would be mistaken if they relegated living fossils to paleontological inquiry or
assumed that the concept is dead. It is now used to describe entities ranging from viruses to …

Ancestral reconstruction in its fullest sense aims to describe the complete evolutionary
history of a lineage. This depends on accurate phylogenies and an understanding of the key …

Spinicaudata (spiny clam shrimp) is a taxon of Branchiopoda occurring since the Devonian
and today it occurs nearly globally in temporary water bodies. We present the most species …

We used a combined analysis of one nuclear (28S rDNA) and three mitochondrial markers
(COI, 12S rDNA, 16S rDNA) to infer the molecular phylogeny of the Notostraca, represented …