Palaeodiversity and evolution of selected Phoridae from Cretaceous to Holocene through different amber and copal deposits

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The scuttle flies (Phoridae: Diptera) have radiated extensively since the Cretaceous and have never stopped evolving since then. They belong to one of the most diverse families among the Diptera. The evolutionary history of the group as it diversified during the Cretaceous period can be discerned extensively in the well-known amber deposits in Lebanon, Canada, New Jersey, Spain, France and Myanmar. Amber is particularly favourable because morphological characters can be observed in it with exceptional detail in each of the geological ages between the Cretaceous and the Holocene periods. The present project aims to study with selected abundant taxa: 1) If the high morphological diversity of phorids were already present during the Cretaceous period; 2) How the family developed after Cretaceous in the earlier geological periods covered by amber deposits; 3) If the diversity observable in the specimens preserved in amber and copal, are a response of the evolving pressures (e.g., climatic and biological changes) during the different periods or a reflection of the taphonomic bias of no-comparable data between the different amber deposits.