Fifty million years of beetle evolution along the Antarctic Polar Front

• Published in: Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences
• Main Authors: Baird, Helena P, Shin, Seunggwan, Oberprieler, Rolf G, Hullé, Maurice, Vernon, Philippe, Moon, Katherine L, Adams, Richard H, Mckenna, Duane D, Chown, Steven L
• Other Authors: Monash University Clayton, School of Biological Sciences Edinburgh, University of Edinburgh, University of Memphis (U of M), Seoul National University Seoul (SNU), Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation Canberra (CSIRO), Institut de Génétique, Environnement et Protection des Plantes (IGEPP), Université de Rennes (UR)-Institut National de Recherche pour l’Agriculture, l’Alimentation et l’Environnement (INRAE)-INSTITUT AGRO Agrocampus Ouest, Institut national d'enseignement supérieur pour l'agriculture, l'alimentation et l'environnement (Institut Agro)-Institut national d'enseignement supérieur pour l'agriculture, l'alimentation et l'environnement (Institut Agro), Ecosystèmes, biodiversité, évolution Rennes (ECOBIO), Université de Rennes (UR)-Institut Ecologie et Environnement - CNRS Ecologie et Environnement (INEE-CNRS), Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS)-Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS)-Observatoire des Sciences de l'Univers de Rennes (OSUR), Université de Rennes (UR)-Institut national des sciences de l'Univers (INSU - CNRS)-Université de Rennes 2 (UR2)-Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS)-Institut National de Recherche pour l’Agriculture, l’Alimentation et l’Environnement (INRAE)-Institut national des sciences de l'Univers (INSU - CNRS)-Université de Rennes 2 (UR2)-Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS)-Institut National de Recherche pour l’Agriculture, l’Alimentation et l’Environnement (INRAE)-Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS), School of Biological Sciences Clayton, Florida Atlantic University Boca Raton, This work received support from École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne, Swiss Polar Institute, and Ferring Pharmaceuticals through the Antarctic Circumnavigation Expedition. D.D.M. received funding from the US NSF (DEB1355169).
• Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
• Language: English
• Published: HAL CCSD 2021
• Subjects: Antarctica; herbivory; island biogeography; paleoclimate; species radiation; [SDE.BE]Environmental Sciences/Biodiversity and Ecology; Antarctic; The Antarctic; Antarc*
• Online Access: https://hal.science/hal-03281810; https://hal.science/hal-03281810/document; https://hal.science/hal-03281810/file/e2017384118.full.pdf; https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.2017384118

International audience Global cooling and glacial-interglacial cycles since Antarctica’s isolation have been responsible for the diversification of the region’s marine fauna. By contrast, these same Earth system processes are thought to have played little role terrestrially, other than driving widespread extinctions. Here, we show that on islands along the Antarctic Polar Front, paleoclimatic processes have been key to diversification of one of the world’s most geographically isolated and unique groups of herbivorous beetles-Ectemnorhinini weevils. Combining phylogenomic, phylogenetic, and phylogeographic approaches, we demonstrate that these weevils colonized the sub-Antarctic islands from Africa at least 50 Ma ago and repeatedly dispersed among them. As the climate cooled from the mid-Miocene, diversification of the beetles accelerated, resulting in two species-rich clades. One of these clades specialized to feed on cryptogams, typical of the polar habitats that came to prevail under Miocene conditions yet remarkable as a food source for any beetle. This clade’s most unusual representative is a marine weevil currently undergoing further speciation. The other clade retained the more common weevil habit of feeding on angiosperms, which likely survived glaciation in isolated refugia. Diversification of Ectemnorhinini weevils occurred in synchrony with many other Antarctic radiations, including penguins and notothenioid fishes, and coincided with major environmental changes. Our results thus indicate that geo-climatically driven diversification has progressed similarly for Antarctic marine and terrestrial organisms since the Miocene, potentially constituting a general biodiversity paradigm that should be sought broadly for the region’s taxa.