Endemic African mammals shake the phylogenetic tree

Cleven, Gregory C.; Madsen, Ole; Jong, Wilfried W. de; Waddell, Victor; Amrine, Heather M.; Stanhope, Michael J.

doi:10.1038/40386

Cited by 302 publications

(199 citation statements)

References 22 publications

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“…Instead of deriving from independent lineages, as previously believed, Megaloglossus, Lissonycteris, and Epomophorus share a common ancestor that likely resided in Africa. Another example of an endemic African clade revealed by molecular data, albeit at a higher taxonomic level and deeper in the mammalian tree, is the association of proboscideans, sirenians, hyracoids, tubulidentates, macroscelideans, and chrysochlorids (26,33,34). In both cases, geographic distributions yield insights into phylogenetic relationships that did not emerge from morphological studies.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Old World fruitbat phylogeny: Evidence for convergent evolution and an endemic African clade

Hollar

Springer²

1997

Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. U.S.A.

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Knud Andersen (1912, Catalogue of the Chiroptera in the Collections of the British Museum: I. Megachiroptera, British Museum of Natural History, London) divided Old World fruitbats (family Pteropodidae) into the rousettine, cynopterine, epomophorine, eonycterine, and notopterine sections. The latter two sections comprise the subfamily Macroglossinae; members of this subfamily exhibit specializations for nectarivory (e.g., elongated, protrusible, brushy tongues) and cluster together in cladistic analyses based on anatomical characters. Other evidence, including single-copy DNA hybridization, suggests that macroglossines are either paraphyletic or polyphyletic; this implies that adaptations for pollen and nectar feeding evolved independently in different macroglossine lineages or were lost in nonmacroglossines after evolving in a more basal common ancestor. Hybridization data also contradict Andersen's phylogeny in providing support for an endemic African clade that includes representatives of three of Andersen's sections. Here, we present complete mitochondrial 12S rRNA and valine tRNA gene sequences for 20 pteropodids, including representatives of all of Andersen's sections, and examine the aforementioned controversies. Maximum likelihood, minimum evolution, and maximum parsimony analyses all contradict macroglossine monophyly and provide support for an African clade that associates Megaloglossus and Lissonycteris and those two with Epomophorus. In conjunction with the DNA hybridization results, there are now independent lines of molecular evidence suggesting: (i) convergent evolution of specializations for nectarivory, at least in Megaloglossus versus other macroglossines, and (ii) a previously unrecognized clade of endemic Africa taxa. Estimates of divergence time based on 12S rRNA and DNA hybridization data are also in good agreement and suggest that extant fruitbats trace back to a common ancestor 25 million to 36 million years ago.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Old World fruitbat phylogeny: Evidence for convergent evolution and an endemic African clade

Hollar

Springer²

1997

Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. U.S.A.

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“…On the molecular front, features of Novacek's [25] morphological tree were both corroborated and challenged by early phylogenetic analyses of DNA sequences (reviewed by Springer et al [14]). Morphological and molecular consensus emerged for Paenungulata (hyraxes, manatees and elephants) [24,25,[32][33][34][35][36][37], and some molecular studies [35,38] agreed with morphology in supporting Glires (lagomorphs and rodents) [24,32,35,38,39]. Other morphological hypotheses including Altungulata (perissodactyls and paenungulates), Anagalida (rodents, lagomorphs, and elephant shrews), Archonta (primates, dermopterans, treeshrews and bats), Ungulata (paenungulates, perissodactyls, cetartiodactyls and aardvarks) and Volitantia (bats and colugos) were rejected by molecular data [35].…”

Section: Shaking the Morphological Treementioning

confidence: 99%

“…Morphological and molecular consensus emerged for Paenungulata (hyraxes, manatees and elephants) [24,25,[32][33][34][35][36][37], and some molecular studies [35,38] agreed with morphology in supporting Glires (lagomorphs and rodents) [24,32,35,38,39]. Other morphological hypotheses including Altungulata (perissodactyls and paenungulates), Anagalida (rodents, lagomorphs, and elephant shrews), Archonta (primates, dermopterans, treeshrews and bats), Ungulata (paenungulates, perissodactyls, cetartiodactyls and aardvarks) and Volitantia (bats and colugos) were rejected by molecular data [35]. Of historical interest, early DNA studies also suggested novel or throwback hypotheses including rodent paraphyly, a basal split between rodents or hedgehogs and all other placental mammals, and a modified version of Gregory's [40] Marsupionta (monotremes and marsupials) hypothesis, all of which have now been debunked (reviewed in Novacek [25] and Springer et al [14]).…”

Section: Shaking the Morphological Treementioning

confidence: 99%

Mammal madness: is the mammal tree of life not yet resolved?

Foley

Springer

Teeling

2016

Phil. Trans. R. Soc. B

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One contribution of 15 to a discussion meeting issue 'Dating species divergences using rocks and clocks'. Most molecular phylogenetic studies place all placental mammals into four superordinal groups, Laurasiatheria (e.g. dogs, bats, whales), Euarchontoglires (e.g. humans, rodents, colugos), Xenarthra (e.g. armadillos, anteaters) and Afrotheria (e.g. elephants, sea cows, tenrecs), and estimate that these clades last shared a common ancestor 90-110 million years ago. This phylogeny has provided a framework for numerous functional and comparative studies. Despite the high level of congruence among most molecular studies, questions still remain regarding the position and divergence time of the root of placental mammals, and certain 'hard nodes' such as the Laurasiatheria polytomy and Paenungulata that seem impossible to resolve. Here, we explore recent consensus and conflict among mammalian phylogenetic studies and explore the reasons for the remaining conflicts. The question of whether the mammal tree of life is or can be ever resolved is also addressed.This article is part of the themed issue 'Dating species divergences using rocks and clocks'.

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“…DNA sequence evidence from various nuclear and mtDNA genes and a unique 9-bp deletion in exon 11 of the BRCA1 gene support an Afrotherian grouping (4)(5)(6)(7)(8)(9)(10)(11)(12) that comprises six of the orders of mammals. On morphological grounds, however, there is little to suggest that the Proboscidea (elephant), Tubulidentata (aardvark), Macroscelidea (elephant shrews or sengis), Hyracoidea (hyrax), Sirenia (dugongs and manatees), and the newly erected subordinal Afrosoricida (golden mole and tenrecs; ref.…”

mentioning

confidence: 99%

Reciprocal chromosome painting among human, aardvark, and elephant (superorder Afrotheria) reveals the likely eutherian ancestral karyotype

Yang

Alkalaeva

Perelman

et al. 2003

Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. U.S.A.

159

194

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The Afrotheria, a supraordinal grouping of mammals whose radiation is rooted in Africa, is strongly supported by DNA sequence data but not by their disparate anatomical features. We have used flow-sorted human, aardvark, and African elephant chromosome painting probes and applied reciprocal painting schemes to representatives of two of the Afrotherian orders, the Tubulidentata (aardvark) and Proboscidea (elephants), in an attempt to shed additional light on the evolutionary affinities of this enigmatic group of mammals. Although we have not yet found any unique cytogenetic signatures that support the monophyly of the Afrotheria, embedded within the aardvark genome we find the strongest evidence yet of a mammalian ancestral karyotype comprising 2n ‫؍‬ 44. This karyotype includes nine chromosomes that show complete conserved synteny to those of man, six that show conservation as single chromosome arms or blocks in the human karyotype but that occur on two different chromosomes in the ancestor, and seven neighbor-joining combinations (i.e., the synteny is maintained in the majority of species of the orders studied so far, but which corresponds to two chromosomes in humans). The comparative chromosome maps presented between human and these Afrotherian species provide further insight into mammalian genome organization and comparative genomic data for the Afrotheria, one of the four major evolutionary clades postulated for the Eutheria.

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Endemic African mammals shake the phylogenetic tree

Cited by 302 publications

References 22 publications

Old World fruitbat phylogeny: Evidence for convergent evolution and an endemic African clade

Old World fruitbat phylogeny: Evidence for convergent evolution and an endemic African clade

Mammal madness: is the mammal tree of life not yet resolved?

Reciprocal chromosome painting among human, aardvark, and elephant (superorder Afrotheria) reveals the likely eutherian ancestral karyotype

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