Innovative Bayesian and parsimony phylogeny of dung beetles (coleoptera, scarabaeidae, scarabaeinae) enhanced by ontology-based partitioning of morphological characters.

ABSTRACT: Scarabaeine dung beetles are the dominant dung feeding group of insects and are widely used as model organisms in conservation, ecology and developmental biology. Due to the conflicts among 13 recently published phylogenies dealing with the higher-level relationships of dung beetles, the phylogeny of this lineage remains largely unresolved. In this study, we conduct rigorous phylogenetic analyses of dung beetles, based on an unprecedented taxon sample (110 taxa) and detailed investigation of morphology (205 characters). We provide the description of morphology and thoroughly illustrate the used characters. Along with parsimony, traditionally used in the analysis of morphological data, we also apply the Bayesian method with a novel approach that uses anatomy ontology for matrix partitioning

SUBMITTER: Tarasov S 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC4363793 | biostudies-literature | 2015

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature