Molecular phylogenetics and the origins of placental mammals

William J. Murphy, Eduardo Eizirik, Warren E. Johnson, Ya Ping Zhang, Oliver A. Ryder and Stephen J. O'Brien ()
Additional contact information
William J. Murphy: Laboratory of Genomic Diversity, National Cancer Institute
Eduardo Eizirik: Laboratory of Genomic Diversity, National Cancer Institute
Warren E. Johnson: Laboratory of Genomic Diversity, National Cancer Institute
Ya Ping Zhang: Key Laboratory of Cellular and Molecular Evolution, Kunming Institute of Zoology, Chinese Academy of Sciences
Oliver A. Ryder: Center for Reproduction of Endangered Species, Zoological Society of San Diego
Stephen J. O'Brien: Laboratory of Genomic Diversity, National Cancer Institute

Nature, 2001, vol. 409, issue 6820, 614-618

Abstract: Abstract The precise hierarchy of ancient divergence events that led to the present assemblage of modern placental mammals has been an area of controversy among morphologists, palaeontologists and molecular evolutionists. Here we address the potential weaknesses of limited character and taxon sampling in a comprehensive molecular phylogenetic analysis of 64 species sampled across all extant orders of placental mammals. We examined sequence variation in 18 homologous gene segments (including nearly 10,000 base pairs) that were selected for maximal phylogenetic informativeness in resolving the hierarchy of early mammalian divergence. Phylogenetic analyses identify four primary superordinal clades: (I) Afrotheria (elephants, manatees, hyraxes, tenrecs, aardvark and elephant shrews); (II) Xenarthra (sloths, anteaters and armadillos); (III) Glires (rodents and lagomorphs), as a sister taxon to primates, flying lemurs and tree shrews; and (IV) the remaining orders of placental mammals (cetaceans, artiodactyls, perissodactyls, carnivores, pangolins, bats and core insectivores). Our results provide new insight into the pattern of the early placental mammal radiation.

Date: 2001
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (1)

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.nature.com/articles/35054550 Abstract (text/html)
Access to the full text of the articles in this series is restricted.

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:nat:nature:v:409:y:2001:i:6820:d:10.1038_35054550

Ordering information: This journal article can be ordered from
https://www.nature.com/

DOI: 10.1038/35054550

Access Statistics for this article

Nature is currently edited by Magdalena Skipper

More articles in Nature from Nature
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Sonal Shukla () and Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing ().