Scientists Discover When Beetles Became Prolific
Published:28 Mar.2022 Source:University of Bristol
After a year and a half of running on a supercomputer at the University of Bristol's Advanced Computing Research Centre, the scientists were able to build a robust evolutionary tree of beetles which also included data on 57 beetle fossils to contain the timescale of beetle evolution. Their findings provide one of the most comprehensive evolutionary trees of beetles.
Different beetle clades diversified independently, as various new ecological opportunities opened up. "There was not a single epoch of beetle radiation, their secret seems to lie in their remarkable flexibility," explained author Professor Chenyang Cai of Bristol's School of Earth Sciences. "The refined timescale of beetle evolution will be an invaluable tool for investigating the evolutionary basis of the beetle's success story."