Data from: Phylogenomic insights into the cambrian explosion, the colonization of land and the evolution of flight in arthropoda

The timing of the origin of arthropods in relation to the Cambrian
explosion is still controversial, as are the timing of other arthropod
macroevolutionary events such as the colonization of land and the
evolution of flight. Here we assess the power of a phylogenomic approach
to shed light on these major events in the evolutionary history of life on
earth. Analyzing a large phylogenomic dataset (122 taxa, 62 genes) with a
Bayesian-relaxed molecular clock, we simultaneously reconstructed the
phylogenetic relationships and the absolute times of divergences among the
arthropods. Simulations were used to test whether our analysis could
distinguish between alternative Cambrian explosion scenarios with
increasing levels of autocorrelated rate variation. Our analyses support
previous phylogenomic hypotheses and simulations indicate a Precambrian
origin of the arthropods. Our results provide insights into the 3
independent colonizations of land by arthropods and suggest that evolution
of insect wings happened much earlier than the fossil record indicates,
with flight evolving during a period of increasing oxygen levels and
impressively large forests. These and other findings provide a foundation
for macroevolutionary and comparative genomic study of Arthropoda.