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Klimov et al 2025 mites in ancient ...
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Authors
Klimov, Pavel BKolesnikov, Vasiliy B
Vorontsov, Dmitry D
Ball, Alexander D
Bolton, Samuel J
Mellish, Claire
Edgecombe, GD

Pepato, Almir R
Chetverikov, Philipp E
He, Qixin
Perotti, M Alejandra
Braig, Henk R
Issue date
2025-04-19Submitted date
2024-12-06Subject Terms
entomologypalaeontology
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Show full item recordAbstract
Acariform mites play a crucial role as primary soil decomposers, impacting the carbon cycle. However, the timing of their diversification is uncertain, with estimated dates ranging from the Precambrian (no land plants) to the Carboniferous (diverse terrestrial ecosystems). One factor affecting these time estimates is an uncertain phylogenetic position of the earliest unequivocal fossil mites from the Devonian Rhynie Chert, which have been classified in five modern families and three suborders. Here, we thoroughly examine these specimens, assign them to a single species Protacarus crani (family Protoacaridae, fam. nov., suborder Endeostigmata) and integrate this information into a time-calibrated phylogenetic analysis. Our phylogeny suggests a Cambrian basal divergence of Acariformes (508-486 Ma), coinciding with the land colonization by bryophytes. At this time, the mites' ecological niches were probably diversified beyond the upper soil. Our study provides temporal context, improves the accuracy of fossil dating, and underscores the importance of mites' diverse habitats and their potential roles in soil food webs.Citation
Klimov, P.B., Kolesnikov, V.B., Vorontsov, D.D. et al. The evolutionary history and timeline of mites in ancient soils. Sci Rep 15, 13555 (2025). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-025-96115-2Publisher
Springer Science and Business Media LLCJournal
Scientific ReportsType
Journal ArticleItem Description
Copyright © The Author(s) 2025. This article is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License, which permits any non-commercial use, sharing, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, as long as you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons licence, and indicate if you modified the licensed material. You do not have permission under this licence to share adapted material derived from this article or parts of it. The images or other third party material in this article are included in the article’s Creative Commons licence, unless indicated otherwise in a credit line to the material. If material is not included in the article’s Creative Commons licence and your intended use is not permitted by statutory regulation or exceeds the permitted use, you will need to obtain permission directly from the copyright holder. To view a copy of this licence, visit http://creativecommo ns.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/. The attached file is the published version of the article.NHM Repository
ISSN
2045-2322EISSN
2045-2322ae974a485f413a2113503eed53cd6c53
10.1038/s41598-025-96115-2
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