Older lineages of oribatid mites in mountain ranges have broader geographic ranges and exhibit more generalistic traits

Understanding ecological and evolutionary mechanisms that drive biodiversity patterns is important for comprehending biodiversity. Despite being critically important to the functioning of ecosystems, the mechanisms driving belowground biodiversity are little understood. We here investigated the radiation and trait diversity of soil oribatid mites from two mountain ranges, i.e. the Alps in Austria and Changbai Mountain in China, at similar latitude in the temperate zone differing in formation processes (orogenesis) and exposed to different climates. We collected and sequenced soil oribatid mites from forests at 950 to 1700 m at each mountain and embedded them into the chronogram of species from temperate Eurasia. We investigated the phylogenetic age of oribatid mites and compared the node age of species with the mountain uplift time of the Alps and Changbai Mountain. We then inspected trophic variation, geographical range size and reproductive mode, and identified traits that promote ori..., , , # Older lineages of oribatid mites in mountain ranges have broader geographic ranges and exhibit more generalistic traits

Pan, X., Heimburger, B., Chen, W., Lu, Z., Cordes, P. H., Xie, Z., Sun, X., Liu, D., Wu, D., Scheu, S., Schaefer, I., & Maraun, M. (2025). Older Lineages of Oribatid Mites in Mountain Ranges Have Broader Geographic Ranges and Exhibit More Generalistic Traits. Ecology and Evolution, 15(3), e71046. [https://doi.org/10.1002/ece3.71046](https://doi.org/10.1002/ece3.71046)

Published Article Link:  [https://doi.org/10.1002/ece3.71046](https://doi.org/10.1002/ece3.71046)  **OR ** [https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/ece3.71046](https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/ece3.71046)

## Description of the data and file structure

We have submitted all our related documents including supplementary files (* 7), Code (* 1), and raw data (* 6).

Dryad Dataset Link: [https://doi.org/10.5061/dryad.2bvq83bz0](https://doi.org/10.5061/dryad.2bvq83bz0)

### Raw Data

**1 --...,