The fossil record and taphonomy of butterflies and moths (Insecta Lepidoptera): implications for evolutionary diversity and divergence-time estimates

摘要

BackgroundIt is conventionally accepted that the lepidopteran fossil record is significantly incomplete when compared to the fossil records of other, very diverse, extant insect orders. Such an assumption, however, has been based on cumulative diversity data rather than using alternative statistical approaches from actual specimen counts.