Overview
- The peer-reviewed study, published in Cell, examines 90 arachnid genomes at chromosome scale to resolve deep evolutionary relationships.
- Researchers tracked conserved gene order as an “evolutionary GPS,” moving beyond simple gene counts to infer ancient splits.
- The analysis confirms two independently originating clades: Acariformes, which includes most mites, and Parasitiformes, which includes ticks and the remaining mites.
- The work reconstructs how parasitism emerged and diversified over more than 100 million years among these arachnids.
- Authors say the clarified family tree can help predict vector potential and guide targeted surveillance as climate and land-use change shift species distributions.