The need for robust estimates of times of divergence is essential for downstream analyses, yet assessing this robustness is still rare. We generated a time-calibrated genus-level phylogeny of butterflies (Papilionoidea), including 994 taxa, up to 10 gene fragments and an unprecedented set of 12 fossils and 10 host-plant node calibration points. We compared marginal priors and posterior distributions to assess the relative importance of the former on the latter. This approach revealed a strong influence of the set of priors on the root age but for most calibrated nodes posterior distributions shifted from the marginal prior, indicating significant information in the molecular dataset. Using a very conservative approach we estimated an origin of butterflies at 107.6 Ma, approximately equivalent to the latest Early Cretaceous, with a credibility interval ranging from 89.5 Ma (mid Late Cretaceous) to 129.5 Ma (mid Early Cretaceous). In addition, we tested the effects of changing fossil calibration priors, tree prior, different sets of calibrations and different sampling fractions but our estimate remained robust to these alternative assumptions. With 994 genera, this tree provides a comprehensive source of secondary calibrations for studies on butterflies.
S1_List_of_taxa
List of taxa and Genbank accession codes.
S_2a_Core_analysis_dataset
S2. Molecular matrix for the core analysis (S2a).
S_2b_Reduced_dataset
S2. Molecular matrix for the reduced dataset (S2b).
S_2c_Dataset_with_COI
S2. Molecular matrix for the dataset with a mitochondrial fragment (S2c).
S_3a_core analysis_RAxML_topology
S3. RAxML topology (S3a) obtained from the core analysis. Numbers at the nodes indicate rapid-bootstrap support values.
S_3b_core_analysis_median_ages
S3. Time-calibrated tree (S3b) obtained from the core analysis. Node ages are the median of node age posterior distributions.
S_4_deep_Level_fossils_median_ages
S4. Tree obtained when using only deep-level fossil calibrations. Node ages are the median of node age posterior distributions.
S_5_shallow_Level_fossils_median_ages
S5. Tree obtained when using only shallow-level fossil calibrations. Node ages are the median of node age posterior distributions.
S_6_reduced_dataset_median_ages
S6. Tree obtained from the reduced dataset. Node ages are the median of node age posterior distributions.
S_7_exponential_priors_median_ages
S7. Tree obtained when using exponential fossil calibration priors. Node ages are the median of node age posterior distributions.
S_8_nuclear_and_COI_median_ages
S8. Tree obtained when adding a mitochondrial gene fragment. Node ages are the median of node age posterior distributions.
S_9_lognormalPriors_median_ages
S9. Tree obtained when using fossil information only modeled using lognormal priors. Node ages are the median of node age posterior distributions.
S_10a_Foster_2017_median_ages
S10. Tree obtained when using the host-plant ages obtained from Foster et al. (2017). Node ages are the median of node age posterior distributions.
S_10b_Foster_2017_mode_ages
S10. Tree obtained when using the host-plant ages obtained from Foster et al. (2017). Node ages are the mode of the kernel density estimate of the posterior distribution.
S_11_Yule_treePrior_median ages
S11. Tree obtained when using a Yule prior instead of Birth-Death tree prior. Node ages are the median of node age posterior distributions.
S_12_core_analysis_detailed_tree_figure
S12. Figure of the complete tree obtained from the core analysis, including the position of all the calibration points used in the core analysis. Node ages are the median of node age posterior distributions. Credibility intervals are also shown.
