Plastid phylogenomics illuminates backbone relationships, divergence times and character evolution in Caryophyllaceae

This is the first comprehensive phylogenomic analysis of Caryophyllaceae that strongly supports the subdivision of the family into 11 tribes. While the initial divergence of this family (ca. 56.4 Mya) may be associated with the Paleocene-Eocene Thermal Maximum (PETM; ca. 55.5 Mya), tribes only started to diversify either during the Late Eocene (ca. 35.1-31.6 Mya) or, in particular, during the Late Oligocene to Mid-Miocene (25.5-15.5 Mya). This temporal coincidence suggests that the origin and diversification of many, if not the majority of Caryophyllaceae genera may have been shaped by global cooling and/or aridification events since the Mid-to-Late Miocene as well as the Pliocene-Pleistocene.