Biologia 72/8: 886—912, 2017 Section Zoology DOI: 10.1515/biolog-2017-0096 Temporary deleterious mass mutations relate to originations of cockroach families Peter Vršanský 1,2,3,4,5 , Róbert Oružinský 3 , Danil Aristov 4 , Dan-Dan Wei 5 , Ľubomír Vidlička 2 & Dong Ren 5 1 Institute of Physics, Research Centre of Quantum Informatics, Slovak Academy of Sciences, Dúbravská cesta 9, SK-84511 Bratislava, Slovakia; e-mail: geolvrsa@savba.sk 2 Institute of Zoology, Slovak Academy of Sciences, Dúbravská cesta 9, SK-84506 Bratislava, Slovakia 3 Earth Science Institute, Slovak Academy of Sciences, Dúbravská cesta 9, P.O. BOX 105, SK-84005 Bratislava, Slovakia 4 Palaeontological Institute, Russian Academy of Sciences, Profsoyuznaya 123, 117868 Moscow, Russia 5 College of Life Science, Capital Normal University, 105 Xisanhuanbeilu, Haidian District, Beijing, 100048, P.R.China Abstract: Heritably transferred genome mutations extending phenotypic variability together with natural selection (al- ternatively with genetic drift, draft, stability, and passive selections) are the main conditions of species evolution. Intervals with high rates of detrimental mutations are virtually absent from the fossil record due to the difficulty of identifying them. Our evidence, based on living populations indicate that insect wing deformities represent heritable hypomorphic mutations that are similar to those observed in Chernobyl and Fukushima. Newly collected assemblages from two of the major diversi- fication intervals, the Cretaceous (J/K or K1) Yixian Formation in China and Permian/Triassic (P/T) Poldars Formation in Russia, exhibit cockroach wing deformity rates of 27% and 42.5% (n = 120, 73), respectively. Wing deformity and principal, family rank origination rates (seven peaks each) correlate from the Mississippian/Pennsylvanian to the present (∼ 320 Ma, n = 5059, r = 0.83, P = 0.005, rSpearman = 0.77), which is the first significant support for the association of detrimental mutations and evolution on the geological scale. It unexpectedly provides direct evidence for association of high-taxonomic rank changes and accumulation of mutations (which is neither trivial nor self-evident due to sophisticated patterns of gene flow), while this relationship is absent at species and genus levels. According to uncertainty of the numerical dating of non-marine sediments, a regular 62.05 ± 0.02 Ma periodicity of diversification and mass mutagenesis with the last peak at 3.95 ± 0.2 Ma (peaks possibly associated with origin and/or radiation of dinosaurs and frogs; birds and angiosperms; modern mammals; humans), is explanatory. Key words: evolution; diversification; mass mutations; fossil insects; cockroaches; Nemesis Introduction In contrast to the historically recognized contribution of mutations to variability in the complex process of heritability (Rifkin et al. 2005) and thus with the role of mutations in phylogeny (Sosov 1955; Fitch & Markowitz 1970; Bulmer 1972; Lande 1976), except for the deformed P/T pollen, the importance of mu- tations in standard evolution is unproven in the fossil record (Visscher et al. 2004). Due to gene flow it is unproven even in hypotheses of most strict synthetists (Mayr 1976). How improbable this statement appears, no significant fossil evidence exists for a correlation be- tween the evolutionary rate and the frequency of (at least temporary deleterious) mutations or even the de- gree of their accumulation. Deformed pollen and in- sects occur massively only locally, near the P/T and J/K boundaries (Krassilov 2003; Vršanský 2004, 2005; Visscher et al. 2004; Lukashevich 2011; Sukatsheva & Vassilenko 2011; Vršanský & Aristov 2012, 2014; Barna 2014; Gao et al. 2016). Vast and significant evidence with broad consensus, but sometimes ambiguous (as referenced below) from molecular phylogenies is unfor- tunately tautological – molecular data support molec- ular phylogeny extracted from them. Therefore, al- though molecular results based on independent data from diverse independent genes are vastly comparative, this correlation needs to be independently validated based on biogeography and/or morphological data ex- tracted from extant organisms or the fossil record – although these data alone are also not conclusive. Very few groups are suitable for such analysis, cockroach wings meeting such criteria exactly being abundant, conservative, hard and fine enough to reveal these data, while these background characteristics also explain why there are no body deformities recorded, even within these cockroaches. It is also extremely important that these deformities are apparently only slightly detrimen- tal, as in some other groups (e.g., in most flies and other minute insects) such deformities, possibly asym- metrically present in one wing only is lethal, as is indi- cated by the lack of such malformations preserved in in- c 2017 Institute of Zoology, Slovak Academy of Sciences Brought to you by | University of Sussex Library Authenticated Download Date | 9/20/17 4:50 AM