Evolutionary Diversification and Biogeography of an Australian fauna, revealed by a near-complete species level molecular phylogeny of diving beetles

澳大利亚动物群是魅力和高度特有的物种水平。此外，澳大利亚和邻近地区（如新几内亚、斐济）有许多地方性辐射，是澳大利亚地理区域的特征。然而，只有少数大规模的分子系统发育分析试图解开的空间和时间的动物群，特别是巨多样性昆虫的研究仍然很少。在这里，我们使用潜水甲虫揭示了进化的多样性，形态，生态和可能的昆虫种群遗传多样性。对于大多数澳大利亚辐射，我们的物种水平覆盖率高于85%，这是迄今为止唯一的采样。密集的采样将使我们能够估计多样化率和tempi在几个副本和群体在不同的气候带（热带与温带）和地质环境（旧大陆陆块/与最近的隆起或海洋岛屿）。因此，可以发现动物多样性演变的共同模式或差异，从而可能有助于确定促进或阻碍多样化进程的关键创新和/或区域非生物因素。我们的实验设置将提供广泛的经验数据，在整个生态地理区域的动物群的演变，嵌入在我们的世界dytiscid数据集的全球框架。我们希望揭示一个复杂的情景，反映了研究区域的高度多样化和移动的地理环境的动物多样性。

The Australian fauna is charismatic and highly endemic on the species level. Moreover, Australia and adjacent areas (e.g. New Guinea, Fiji) house many endemic radiations, characterizing the Australian biogeographic region. Yet, only few large scale molecular phylogenetic analyses sought to unravel the spatial and temporal evolution of the fauna, and especially the megadiverse insects remain little studied. Here, we use diving beetles to reveal the evolutionary diversification of a morphologically, ecologically and presumably phylogenetically diverse group of insects. For most of the Australian radiations, our species level coverage is higher than 85%, a unique sampling to date. The dense sampling will enable us to estimate diversification rates and tempi in several replicas and of groups in different climatic zones (tropical versus temperate) and geological settings (old continental landmasses / versus recent upfolds or oceanic islands). Thus, common patterns or differences in the evolution of faunal diversity can be detected, possibly allowing to identify key innovations and/or regional abiotic factors boosting or retarding the diversification process. Our experimental setup will provide extensive empirical data on the faunal evolution of an entire biogeographical region, embedded in the global framework of our world dytiscid data set. We expect to reveal a complex scenario of the faunal diversification reflecting the highly diverse and mobile geographical setting of the study region.