Microallopatric speciation in southern African dung beetle genus <em>Macroderes</em> driven by Miocene aridification and ancestral flight loss

Southern Africa hosts a highly diverse array of dung beetles (Scarabaeidae: Scarabaeinae), the majority of which are endemic to the region. However, the historical drivers of this diversity remain largely unexplored. While each lineage exhibits a distinct diversification history, many remain poorly understood. To address this gap, we employed molecular phylogenetic analyses to investigate the evolutionary history of the flightless dung beetle genus Macroderes Westwood, which comprises 21 species with highly restricted distributions, collectively covering a relatively small geographic range. Specifically, we tested the hypothesis of monophyly of the genus Macroderes and inferred its hypothesised biogeographical history. Using biogeographical analyses and ancestral character reconstruction, we examined the genus's origins, environmental adaptations (semi-arid vs. moist habitats), and the emergence of flightlessness as an adaptive trait. Additionally, we explored how late Cenozoic aridific..., , # README: Data from: Microallopatric speciation in southern African dung beetle genus *Macroderes* driven by Miocene aridification and ancestral flight loss The dataset comprises raw molecular data used for phylogenetic inferences. We have also included distribution data used for biogeographical inferences as well as data for ancestral trait reconstruction. ## Description of the data and file structure * The molecular data comprises five gene regions as follows: three ribosomal genes (16S and 28S) and two protein-coding genes (COI - Cytochrome Oxidase subunit I and CAD - carbamoyl-phosphate synthetase-aspartate transcarbamoylase-dihydroorotase). The data are in fasta file format. The same tree was used for biogeographical, diversification analyses and ancestral character reconstruction analyses. These tree files can be viewed in R or Fig tree programs. * For biogeographical analyses we used two data files: (range. data) contains the distribution ranges of each species. The distributi...,