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[Display omitted] • 636 accessions (92% increase of total accessions or ca. 44 species increase of the earlier largest sampling) were included. • A distinct lineage of Tectaria sister to the rest of the New-World Tectaria was discovered. • Arthropteridaceae, Pteridryaceae, and Tectariaceae s.s. are recovered as distinct lineages and their relationships were well supported. • Only five intercontinental dispersals occurred in Pteridryaceae and Tectariaceae. • Leaf dissection is found to be not associated with the diversification rate. Intercontinental disjunct distributions can arise either from vicariance, from long-distance dispersal, or through extinction of an ancestral population with a broader distribution. Tectariaceae s.l. , a clade of ferns in Polypodiales with ca. 300 species mainly distributed in the tropics and subtropics, provide an excellent opportunity to investigate global distribution patterns. Here, we assembled a dataset of eight plastid markers and one nuclear marker of 636 (92% increase of the earlier largest sampling) accessions representing ca. 210 species of all eight genera in Tectariaceae s.l. (Arthropteridaceae, Pteridryaceae, and Tectariaceae s.s.) and 35 species of other families of eupolypods Ⅰ. A new phylogeny is reconstructed to study the biogeography and trait-associated diversification. Our major results include: (1) a distinct lineage of Tectaria sister to the rest of the American Tectaria is identified; (2) Tectariaceae s.l. , and the three families: Arthropteridaceae (Arthropteris), Pteridryaceae (Draconopteris , Malaifilix , Polydictyum , Pteridrys), and Tectariaceae s.s. (Hypoderris , Tectaria , and Triplophyllum), might have all originated in late Cretaceous; (3) only five intercontinental dispersals occurred in Pteridryaceae and Tectariaceae s.s. giving rise to their current intercontinental disjunction; (4) we provide the second evidence in ferns that a long-distance dispersal between Malesia and Americas during the Paleocene to Eocene led to the establishment/origin of a new genus (Draconopteris); and (5) diversification rate of each state of leaf dissection is different, and the lowest is in the simple-leaved taxa. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]