FOSSIL CALIBRATIONS FOR THE ARTHROPOD TREE OF LIFE
Authors: Wolfe Joanna M. , Daley Allison C. , Legg David A. , Edgecombe Gregory D. 
Published: March 2016

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 disparate animal phylum, have received substantial attention, particularly with regard to questions such as the timing of habitat shifts (e.g. terrestrialisation), genome evolution (e.g. gene family duplication and functional evolution), origins of novel characters and behaviours (e.g. wings and flight, venom, silk), biogeography, rate of diversification (e.g. Cambrian explosion, insect coevolution with angiosperms, evolution of crab body plans), and the evolution of arthropod microbiomes. We present herein a series of rigorously vetted calibration fossils for arthropod evolutionary history, taking into account recently published guidelines for best practice in fossil calibration. These are restricted to Palaeozoic and Mesozoic fossils, no deeper than ordinal taxonomic level, nonetheless resulting in 80 fossil calibrations for 102 clades. This work is especially timely owing to the rapid growth of molecular sequence data and the fact that many included fossils have been described within the last five years. This contribution provides a resource for systematists and other biologists interested in deep-time questions in arthropod evolution.

ABBREVIATIONS

AMNH

American Museum of Natural History

AMS

Australian Museum, Sydney

AUGD

University of Aberdeen

BGR

Bundesanstalt fur Geowissenschaften und Rohstoffe, Berlin

BMNH

The Natural History Museum, London

CNU

Key Laboratory of Insect Evolutionary & Environmental Change, Capital Normal University, Beijing

DE

Ulster Museum, Belfast

ED

Ibaraki University, Mito, Japan

FMNH

Field Museum of Natural History

GMCB

Geological Museum of China, Beijing

GSC

Geological Survey of Canada

IRNSB

Institut Royal des Sciences Naturelles de Belgique, Brussels

KSU

Kent State University

Ld

Musee Fleury, Lodeve, France

LWL

Landschaftsverband Westfalen-Lippe-Museum fur Naturkunde, Munster

MACN

Museo Argentino de Ciencias Naturales, Buenos Aires

MBA

Museum fur Naturkunde, Berlin

MCNA

Museo de Ciencias Naturales de Alava, Vitoria-Gasteiz, Alava, Spain

MCZ

Museum of Comparative Zoology, Harvard University

MGSB

Museo Geologico del Seminario de Barcelona

MN

Museu Nacional, Rio de Janeiro

MNHN

Museum national d'Histoire naturelle, Paris

NHMUK

The Natural History Museum, London

NIGP

Nanjing Institute of Geology and Palaeontology

NMS

National Museum of Scotland

OUM

Oxford University Museum of Natural History

PBM

Palaobotanik Munster

PIN

Paleontological Institute, Moscow

PRI

Paleontological Research Institution, Ithaca

ROM

Royal Ontario Museum

SAM

South Australian Museum, Adelaide

SM

Sedgwick Museum, University of Cambridge

SMNK

Staatliches Museum fur Naturkunde, Karlsruhe

SMNS

Staatliches Museum fur Naturkunde, Stuttgart

TsGM

F.N. Chernyshev Central Geologic Prospecting Research Museum, St. Petersburg

UB

University of Bonn

USNM

US National Museum of Natural History, Smithsonian Institution

UWGM

University of Wisconsin Geology Museum

YKLP

Yunnan Key Laboratory for Palaeobiology, Yunnan University

YPM

Yale Peabody Museum

ZPAL

Institute of Paleobiology, Polish Academy of Sciences, Warsaw.