“The "Peripatos" in Eurogondwana?-Lack of evidence that southeast Asian onychophorans walked through Europe.

Onychophorans or velvet worms are cryptic but extremely charismatic terrestrial invertebrates that have often been the subject of interesting biogeographic debate. Despite great interest, a well-resolved and complete phylogeny of the group and a reliable chronogram have been elusive due to their broad geographic distribution, paucity of samples, and challenging molecular composition. Here we present a molecular phylogenetic analysis of Onychophora that includes previously unsampled and undersampled lineages and we analyse the expanded dataset using a series of nested taxon sets designed to increase the amount of information available for particular subclades. These include a dataset with outgroups, one restricted to the ingroup taxa, and three others for Peripatopsidae, Peripatidae and Neopatida (= the Neotropical Peripatidae). To explore competing biogeographic scenarios we generate a new time tree for Onychophora using the few reliable fossils as calibration points. Comparing our results to those of Cyphophthalmi we reconsider the hypothesis that velvet worms reached SE Asia via Eurogondwana, and conclude that a more likely scenario is that they reached SE Asia by rafting on the Sibumasu terrane. Our phylogenetic results support the reciprocal monophyly of both families as well as an early division between East and West Gondwana, also in both families, each beginning to diversify between the Permian and the Jurassic.