npj Biodiversity - The timing and nature of marine ecosystem recovery following the Permian-Triassic mass extinction

Abstract. Evolutionary simulations of multiple chromosomes, even up to the scale of full-genome simulations, are becoming increasingly important in populat

An AI killswitch.

The phyla making up the major animal clade of Spiralia have been clear since the advent of molecular phylogenetics; the relationships between these spiralian phyla have not. The lack of consensus over the relationships between these important animal phyla might be a clue implying their emergence in an explosive radiation. Focusing on the five largest spiralian phyla (Annelida, Brachiopoda, Mollusca, Nemertea and Platyhelminthes) and using two phylogenomic datasets, we have applied site-bootstrapping and taxon-jackknifing to explore this example of taxonomic instability. Analyses on the 105 possible rooted trees relating them showed that interphylum branches are very short. Preference for rooting Spiralia on Platyhelminthes is a long-branch artefact. Most analyses on the 15 unrooted trees showed a preference for the same topology but the support over other solutions was non significant. We conclude that the spiralian phyla emerged in rapid succession resulting in a difficult to resolve radiation. The deep history we infer for Spiralia has wide ranging implications for our interpretation of Cambrian fossils and for the evolution of traits such as biomineralization, segmentation and larvae. Impact Statement Analyses of two independent phylogenomic datasets suggest an explosive radiation at the origin of Spiralia, with implications for understanding the group’s evolutionary history. ### Competing Interest Statement The authors have declared no competing interest.

Horizontal gene transfer (HGT) is an important source of gene innovation in prokaryotic and eukaryotic organisms. Several genes acquired by hosts of parasitoid wasps via HGT have been reported to prot...

npj Biodiversity - The flounder effect: disparities in taxonomic and ecological study intensity across extant and fossil marine organisms hamper conservation

YouTube video by Louise Dangit

Abstract. Entropic site saturation is a persistent problem in phylogenetic analyses, where it can hinder the accuracy of topology reconstruction. It is fun