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Photo: Artema atlanta
In 2001 I initiated a project at the University of Vienna, aiming at a first molecular phylogeny of pholcid spiders. When I left Vienna, the work was taken over by Branka Bruvo who did an excellent job in finishing the project. It was obvious that these were preliminary results, as both the numbers of taxa and genes were small, but the study provided a useful basis for further research in this direction. Due primarily to constraints with getting access to fresh DNA-ready material, it took seven years until a second version could be published, with significant increases in taxa and genes (2013, Cladistics). The third version was published another five years later, already with 600 taxa (2018, BMC Evol. Biol.).