Beetle evolution illuminates the geological history of the world’s most diverse tropical archipelago

The geologically-complex Indo-Australian-Melanesian archipelago (IAMA) hosts extraordinarily high levels of species richness and endemism and has long served as a natural laboratory for studying biogeography and evolution. Nonetheless, its geological history and the provenance and evolution of its biodiversity remain poorly understood. Here, we provide a geological scenario for the IAMA informed by a time-calibrated molecular phylogeny of 1,006 species of Trigonopterus weevils—an exceptionally diverse radiation of regionally-endemic flightless beetles. Moreover, we performed a statistical biogeographic analysis and examined timing and patterns in the accumulation of lineages residing in a priori-defined geographic units comprising the IAMA. We estimate that Trigonopterus originated in Australia during the early Paleogene. Subsequent rapid diversification in the area of the present-day Papuan Peninsula suggests the presence of proto-Papuan islands by the middle Eocene; the New Guinea Nor..., , ,