2006/04/06 by Corrie S. Moreau, Charles D. Bell, Roger Vila +2 · 22 citations
Agricultural and Biological Sciences · Biochemistry, Genetics and Molecular Biology · #Plant and animal studies #Insect and Arachnid Ecology and Behavior #Fossil Insects in Amber
paper · doi:10.1126/science.1124891
openalex publication_date 2006/04/06 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/08/02
We present a large-scale molecular phylogeny of the ants (Hymenoptera: Formicidae), based on 4.5 kilobases of sequence data from six gene regions extracted from 139 of the 288 described extant genera, representing 19 of the 20 subfamilies. All but two subfamilies are recovered as monophyletic. Divergence time estimates calibrated by minimum age constraints from 43 fossils indicate that most of the subfamilies representing extant ants arose much earlier than previously proposed but only began to diversify during the Late Cretaceous to Early Eocene. This period also witnessed the rise of angiosperms and most herbivorous insects.