Evolução temporal e espacial de formigas Ponerinae

• Ano de defesa: 2023
• Autor(a) principal: Fiedler, Maico Stochero
• Orientador(a): Mendonça Junior, Milton de Souza
• Tipo de documento: Tese
• Tipo de acesso: Acesso aberto
• Idioma: eng
• Palavras-chave em Português: Formigas; Evolução; Reprodução animal
• Palavras-chave em Inglês: Ants; Reproduction; Evolution
• Link de acesso: http://hdl.handle.net/10183/276226

Ecological and evolutionary studies that incorporate large scales of time and space allow us to understand how past events, such as tectonism and mass extinctions, for example, have shaped the current distribution and abundance of species. Beyond evolution over time and space, another crucial factor for lineage evolution is the presence of attributes that enable the survival and reproduction of populations over time. Using a group of ants to study the aforementioned topics, this thesis is divided into three parts. In Chapter I, of a more exploratory nature, we sought to elucidate the temporal evolution of Ponerinae, with a focus on how distinct geographical units (bioregions) influenced the ants' evolution. Additionally, we aimed to understand how diversification can impact ant diversity across different spatial scales analyzed. Moving on to Chapter II, we tested whether the evolution of Ponerinae was influenced by ecosystem dynamics that occurred after the Cretaceous-Paleogene extinction event, as previously suggested in the scientific literature. Contrary to this previously proposed idea, we demonstrated that the evolution of Ponerinae occurred through a continuous increase in diversification rates over time. Lastly, in Chapter III, we demonstrated that, despite being relatively rare in ants, colony reproduction by workers (called gamergates) instead of the queen does not lead species to an evolutionary dead-end. In other words, we found no evidence that species exhibiting worker reproduction have a higher risk of extinction compared to species with queen reproduction.