Editing Orchid (section)

=== Evolution ===
[[File:The Orchid Tree of Life v.2.0 (en).jpg|thumb|Artist's interpretation of orchid phylogeny, showing the evolution of the family]]

It has been hypothesised that the origin of the orchids goes back much longer than originally expected.<ref name="Origin of the orchids">{{cite journal |author1=Santiago R. Ramírez |author2=Barbara Gravendeel |author3=Rodrigo B. Singer |author4=Charles R. Marshall |author5=Naomi E. Pierce | title=Dating the origin of the Orchidaceae from a fossil orchid with its pollinator| journal=Nature | date=30 August 2007| volume=448| pages=1042–5| doi=10.1038/nature06039 | pmid=17728756 | issue=7157|bibcode=2007Natur.448.1042R }}</ref> An extinct species of stingless bee, ''Proplebeia dominicana'', was found trapped in [[Miocene]] [[amber]] from about 15–20&nbsp;million years ago. The bee was carrying [[pollen]] of a previously unknown orchid taxon, ''[[Meliorchis caribea]]'', on its wings. This find is the first evidence of fossilised orchids to date<ref name="Origin of the orchids" /> and shows insects were active [[pollinator]]s of orchids then. This extinct orchid, ''M. caribea'', has been placed within the extant tribe [[Cranichideae]], subtribe [[Goodyerinae]] (subfamily [[Orchidoideae]]). An even older orchid species, ''[[Succinanthera baltica]]'', was described from the [[Eocene]] [[Baltic amber]] by [[George Poinar Jr.|Poinar]] & Rasmussen (2017).<ref>{{Cite journal|author1=George Poinar, Jr. |author2=Finn N. Rasmussen |year=2017 |title=Orchids from the past, with a new species in Baltic amber |journal=Botanical Journal of the Linnean Society |volume=183 |issue=3 |pages=327–333 |doi=10.1093/botlinnean/bow018 |doi-access=free }}</ref>

Genetic sequencing indicates orchids may have arisen earlier, 76 to 84&nbsp;million years ago during the [[Late Cretaceous]].<ref>[http://ir.lib.ncku.edu.tw/bitstream/987654321/108263/2/An%20overview%20of%20the%20Phalaenopsis%20orchid%20genome%20by%20BAC%20end%20sequence%20analysis.pdf "An overview of the ''Phalaenopsis'' orchid genome by BAC sequence analysis" (pdf format)] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140320133049/http://ir.lib.ncku.edu.tw/bitstream/987654321/108263/2/An%20overview%20of%20the%20Phalaenopsis%20orchid%20genome%20by%20BAC%20end%20sequence%20analysis.pdf |date=20 March 2014 }}.</ref> According to [[Mark W. Chase]] ''et al.'' (2001), the overall biogeography and phylogenetic patterns of Orchidaceae show they are even older and may go back roughly 100&nbsp;million years.<ref>{{cite book |author=Mark W. Chase |year=2001 |chapter=The origin and biogeography of Orchidaceae |editor=A. M. Pridgeon |editor2=P. J. Cribb |editor3=M. W. Chase |editor4=F. Rasmussen |series=Genera Orchidacearum |volume=2 |title=Orchidoideae (Part 1) |pages=1–5 |publisher=[[Oxford University Press]] |isbn=978-0-19-850710-9|author-link=Mark W. Chase }}</ref>

Using the [[molecular clock]] method, it was possible to determine the age of the major branches of the orchid family. This also confirmed that the subfamily [[Vanilloideae]] is a branch at the basal dichotomy of the [[monandrous]] orchids, and must have evolved very early in the evolution of the family. Since this subfamily occurs worldwide in tropical and subtropical regions, from tropical America to tropical Asia, New Guinea and West Africa, and the continents began to split about 100&nbsp;million years ago, significant biotic exchange must have occurred after this split (since the age of ''Vanilla'' is estimated at 60 to 70&nbsp;million years). Recent biogeographic studies conducted on densely sampled phylogenies indicated that the [[most recent common ancestor]] of all extant orchids probably originated somewhere 83 million years ago in the supercontinent [[Laurasia]].<ref name="Perez-Escobar-2024">{{cite journal |last1=Pérez-Escobar |first1=Oscar A. |last2=Bogarín |first2=Diego |last3=Przelomska |first3=Natalia A. S. |last4=Ackerman |first4=James D. |last5=Balbuena |first5=Juan A. |last6=Bellot |first6=Sidonie |last7=Bühlmann |first7=Roland P. |last8=Cabrera |first8=Betsaida |last9=Cano |first9=Jose Aguilar |last10=Charitonidou |first10=Martha |last11=Chomicki |first11=Guillaume |last12=Clements |first12=Mark A. |last13=Cribb |first13=Phillip |last14=Fernández |first14=Melania |last15=Flanagan |first15=Nicola S. |last16=Gravendeel |first16=Barbara |last17=Hágsater |first17=Eric |last18=Halley |first18=John M. |last19=Hu |first19=Ai-Qun |last20=Jaramillo |first20=Carlos |last21=Mauad |first21=Anna Victoria |last22=Maurin |first22=Olivier |last23=Müntz |first23=Robert |last24=Leitch |first24=Ilia J. |last25=Li |first25=Lan |last26=Negrão |first26=Raquel |last27=Oses |first27=Lizbeth |last28=Phillips |first28=Charlotte |last29=Rincon |first29=Milton |last30=Salazar |first30=Gerardo A. |last31=Simpson |first31=Lalita |last32=Smidt |first32=Eric |last33=Solano-Gomez |first33=Rodolfo |last34=Parra-Sánchez |first34=Edicson |last35=Tremblay |first35=Raymond L. |last36=van den Berg |first36=Cassio |last37=Tamayo |first37=Boris Stefan Villanueva |last38=Zuluaga |first38=Alejandro |last39=Zuntini |first39=Alexandre R. |last40=Chase |first40=Mark W. |last41=Fay |first41=Michael F. |last42=Condamine |first42=Fabien L. |last43=Forest |first43=Felix |last44=Nargar |first44=Katharina |last45=Renner |first45=Susanne S. |last46=Baker |first46=William J. |last47=Antonelli |first47=Alexandre |title=The origin and speciation of orchids |journal=New Phytologist |date=April 2024 |volume=242 |issue=2 |pages=700–716 |doi=10.1111/nph.19580 |pmid=38382573 |bibcode=2024NewPh.242..700P |hdl=10550/97112 |hdl-access=free }}</ref> Despite their long evolutionary history on Earth, the extant orchid diversity is also inferred to have originated during the last 5 million years,<ref name="Perez-Escobar-2024" /> with the American and Asian tropics as the geographic areas exhibiting the highest speciation rates (i.e., number of speciation events per million years) on Earth.

Genome duplication occurred prior to the divergence of this taxon.<ref>{{cite journal|doi=10.1038/nature23897|pmid=28902843|title=The Apostasia genome and the evolution of orchids|journal=Nature|volume=549|issue=7672|pages=379–383|year=2017|last1=Zhang|first1=Guo-Qiang|last2=Liu|first2=Ke-Wei|last3=Li|first3=Zhen|last4=Lohaus|first4=Rolf|last5=Hsiao|first5=Yu-Yun|last6=Niu|first6=Shan-Ce|last7=Wang|first7=Jie-Yu|last8=Lin|first8=Yao-Cheng|last9=Xu|first9=Qing|last10=Chen|first10=Li-Jun|last11=Yoshida|first11=Kouki|last12=Fujiwara|first12=Sumire|last13=Wang|first13=Zhi-Wen|last14=Zhang|first14=Yong-Qiang|last15=Mitsuda|first15=Nobutaka|last16=Wang|first16=Meina|last17=Liu|first17=Guo-Hui|last18=Pecoraro|first18=Lorenzo|last19=Huang|first19=Hui-Xia|last20=Xiao|first20=Xin-Ju|last21=Lin|first21=Min|last22=Wu|first22=Xin-Yi|last23=Wu|first23=Wan-Lin|last24=Chen|first24=You-Yi|last25=Chang|first25=Song-Bin|last26=Sakamoto|first26=Shingo|last27=Ohme-Takagi|first27=Masaru|last28=Yagi|first28=Masafumi|last29=Zeng|first29=Si-Jin|last30=Shen|first30=Ching-Yu|pmc=7416622|bibcode=2017Natur.549..379Z|display-authors=29|url=https://biblio.ugent.be/publication/8533332/file/8533333.pdf}}</ref>