Primate Phylogenetics

Todd R Disotell, New York University, New York, USA

Published online: March 2008

DOI: 10.1002/9780470015902.a0005833.pub2

Hypotheses of primate phylogenetic relationships have been greatly influenced by molecular systematic approaches. Improved methods of obtaining and amplifying deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA) from a greater number of sources from more species and subspecies, high-throughput sequencing techniques, the characterization of genomic events such as the insertion of retrotransposons, along with new analytical techniques have allowed inferences to be drawn for most genus-level branches of the primate phylogenetic tree.

Keywords: phylogeny; systematics; taxonomy; strepsirrhini; Haplorhini

Figure 1. Two main hypotheses of primate subordinal relationships: (a) Prosimian/Anthropoid hypothesis and (b) Strepsirhine/Haplorhine hypothesis.
Figure 2. Current consensus view of primate phylogeny derived from molecular analyses.
close
 References
    Chen F-C and Li W-H (2001) Genomic divergences between humans and other hominoids and the effective population size of the common ancestor of humans and chimpanzees. American Journal of Human Genetics 68: 444–456.
    Murphy WJ, Eizirik E, Johnson WE et al. (2001) Molecular phylogenetics and the origins of placental mammals. Nature 409: 614–618.
    Raaum RL, Sterner KN, Noviello CM, Disotell TR and Stewart C-B (2005) Catarrhine primate divergence dates estimated from complete mitochondrial genomes: concordance with fossil and nuclear DNA evidence. Journal of Human Evolution 48: 237–257.
    Ray DA, Xing J, Hedges DJ et al. (2005) Alu insertion loci and platyrrhine primate phylogeny. Molecular Phylogenetics and Evolution 35: 117–126.
    Ray DA, Xing J, Salemm A-H and Batzerm MA (2006) SINES of a Nearly perfect character. Systematic Biology 55: 928–935.
    Schmitz J, Ohme M and Zischler H (2001) SINE insertions in cladistic analyses and the phylogenetic affiliations of Tarsius bancanus to other primates. Genetics 157: 777–784.
    Schmitz J, Ohme M and Zischler H (2002) The complete mitochondrial sequence of Tarsius bancanus: evidence for an extensive nucleotide compositional plasticity of primate mitochondrial DNA. Molecular Biology and Evolution 19: 544–553.
    Schneider H (2000) The current status of the New World monkey phylogeny. Anais de Academia Brasileira de Ciências 72: 165–172.
    Stener KN, Raaum RL, Zhang Y-P, Stewart C-B and Disotell TR (2006) Mitochondrial data support an odd-nosed colobine clade. Molecular Phylogenetics and Evolution 40: 1–7.
    Xing J, Wang H, Zhang Y et al. (2007) A mobile element based evolutionary history of guenons (tribe Cercopithecini). BMC Biology 5: 5.
    Yoder AD (1997) Back to the future: a synthesis of Strepsirhine systematics. Evolutionary Anthropology 6: 11–22.
 Further Reading
    Goodman M, Porter CA, Czelusniak J et al. (1998) Toward a phylogenetic classification of primates based on DNA evidence complemented by fossil evidence. Molecular Phylogenetics and Evolution 9: 585–598.
    Purvis A (1995) A composite estimate of primate phylogeny. Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society of London, Series B: Biological Sciences 348: 405–421.
    Stewart C-B and Disotell TR (1998) Primate evolution – in and out of Africa. Current Biology 8: 582–588.

Related Sub-Topics:

Classification | Reconstruction of Phylogeny
Contact Editor close
Submit a note to the editor about this article by filling in the form below.

* Required Field

Article Title: Primate Phylogenetics
 
How to Cite close
Disotell, Todd R(Mar 2008) Primate Phylogenetics. In: eLS. John Wiley & Sons Ltd, Chichester. http://www.els.net [doi: 10.1002/9780470015902.a0005833.pub2]