Tempo and mode of the origins and evolution of salinity tolerance in aquatic Coleoptera

Abstract

Understanding the evolutionary processes underlying extant biodiversity may help us to comprehend why species richness is not equally distributed between clades. One of the main causes to explain the disparity of species richness is the development of key innovations in particular clades, increasing or decreasing their capabilities to occupy new environments, to exploit novel resources or to cope with competition. This presentation focus on explaining the macroevolutionary consequences of the transition between environments with different degree of salinity.

Among inhabitants of inland aquatic environments, water beetles are one of the most diverse, with representatives living in all kind of environments, including saline environments. The three most speciose water beetle families with species able to survive in hypersaline waters have been studied recently under a phylogenetic perspective, including the origin and evolution of this evolutionary novelty.