Well, I will try to get this started by discussing the Astacidea (crayfish and clawed lobsters) and their evolutionary history. I am hoping someone with a botanical flair will discuss the Magnoliacea, I understand they have a fair paleontological history and there has been some great molecular systematics with basal angiosperms.
The approach to deciphering the history of the crayfish and clawed lobsters is based upon a combination of morphology, fossils, biogeography, and molecular systematics. This group has proven to be more difficult than other decapods as one unifying feature of most members of the group is a retention of basal decapod characters (elongate body, well-developed abdomen, claws on first three walking legs, etc.).
Unfortunately, the fossil evidence for the evolution of astacids is scarce. The few known Triassic forms are very primitive but recognizable Protoastacidea, Erymoidea, and Glyphoidea (note, in the most recent pub I could find the Glyphoidea are removed from the Astacidea and combined with the Erymoidea as a new infraorder Glypheidea (de Grave et al. 2009). I have not yet found the origin or basis for that change, so am leaving this with the older classification). By the Jurassic of the extant superfamilies are found. Standing as an anomaly is a fossilized burrow from the Carboniferous that resembles the burrow type seen in many groups of astacoids.
Molecular phylogenies indicate that the Astacidea as a clade are monophyletic if the Glyphoidea are removed or if some thalassinids are included (a related froup, called mud shrimp or yabbies). It is likely that this and some other work I have not encountered yet are the basis for the reclassification I mentioned above. This confirms the close relationship of these two infraorders based upon morphology.
The bigeography of this group is disjointed and confusing. Schram (2001) shows that if the current distribution of astacoid superfamilies is superimposed on a map with the continents in the Triassic configuration, the disjointed distributions within the freshwater superfamilies disappear. Centralized distribution for all groups based upon the Triassic map strongly suggests an earlier radiation, and consistent with the Carboniferous trace fossil mentioned above.
Breinholt, J, Prez-Losada M, and Crandall KA (2009) The timing of the diversification of the freshwater crayfishes. In: Martin, J.W., K.A. Crandall, and D.L. Felder (eds.) Decapod Crustacean Phylogenetics. Crustacean Issues. Koenemann, S. (series ed.) Vol. 18. Boca Raton, London, New York: CRC Press, Taylor & Francis Group. 343—355 pp.
De Grave S, Pentcheff ND, Ahyong ST, Chan TY, Crandall KA, Dworschak PC, Felder DL, Feldmann RM, Fransen CHJM, Goulding LYD, Lemaitre R, Low MEY,Martin JW, Ng PKL, Schweitzer CE, Tan SH, Tshudy D, and Wetzer R (2009) A classification of living and fossil genera of decapod crustaceans. The Raffles Bulletin of Zoology Supplement No. 21: 1-109.
Schram FR (2001) Phylogeny of decapods: moving towards a consensus, Hydrobiologia 449 (2001), pp. 1—20.
Tshudy D, Robles R, Chan TY, Ho KC, Chu KH, Ahyong ST, and Felder DL (2009) Phylogeny of marine clawed lobster families Nephropidae Dana, 1852, and Thaumastochelidae Bate, 1888, based on mitochondrial genes. In: Martin, J.W., K.A. Crandall, and D.L. Felder (eds.) Decapod Crustacean Phylogenetics. Crustacean Issues. Koenemann, S. (series ed.) Vol. 18. Boca Raton, London, New York: CRC Press, Taylor & Francis Group. 357—368 pp.
Doctor Bashir: "Of all the stories you told me, which were true and which weren't?"
Elim Garak: "My dear Doctor, they're all true"
Doctor Bashir: "Even the lies?"
Elim Garak: "Especially the lies"