2005/09/27 by Nina Rønsted, George D. Weiblen, James M. Cook +3 · 4 citations
Agricultural and Biological Sciences · Biochemistry, Genetics and Molecular Biology · #Plant and animal studies #Plant and Fungal Species Descriptions #Plant Diversity and Evolution #Pollinator #Biology #Obligate #Mutualism (biology) #Symbiosis #Divergence (linguistics) #Phylogenetic tree #Ecology #Coevolution #Cladogenesis #Evolutionary biology #Pollination #Paleontology #Clade #Pollen
paper · doi:10.1098/rspb.2005.3249
openalex publication_date 2005/09/27 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/07/31
Figs (Ficus; ca 750 species) and fig wasps (Agaoninae) are obligate mutualists: all figs are pollinated by agaonines that feed exclusively on figs. This extraordinary symbiosis is the most extreme example of specialization in a plant-pollinator interaction and has fuelled much speculation about co-divergence. The hypothesis that pollinator specialization led to the parallel diversification of fig and pollinator lineages (co-divergence) has so far not been tested due to the lack of robust and comprehensive phylogenetic hypotheses for both partners. We produced and combined the most comprehensive molecular phylogenetic trees to date with fossil data to generate independent age estimates for fig and pollinator lineages, using both non-parametric rate smoothing and penalized likelihood dating methods. Molecular dating of ten pairs of interacting lineages provides an unparalleled example of plant-insect co-divergence over a geological time frame spanning at least 60 million years.