>Mol Phylogenet Evol. 2009 Aug 20. [Epub ahead of print] >Deciphering and dating the red panda's ancestry and early adaptive >radiation of Musteloidea. >Sato JJ, Wolsan M, Minami S, Hosoda T, Sinaga MH, Hiyama K, >Yamaguchi Y, Suzuki H. >Laboratory of Animal Cell Technology, Faculty of Life Science and >Technology, Fukuyama University, Higashimura-cho, Aza, Sanzo, 985, >Fukuyama 729-0292, Japan. > >Few species have been of more disputed affinities than the red or >lesser panda (Ailurus fulgens), an endangered endemic Southeast >Asian vegetarian member of the placental mammalian order Carnivora. >This peculiar carnivoran has mostly been classified with raccoons >(Procyonidae) or bears (Ursidae), grouped with the giant panda >(Ailuropoda melanoleuca) in their own family, or considered a separate >lineage of equivocal ancestry. Recent molecular studies have indicated >a close affinity of the red panda to a clade of procyonids and >mustelids (weasels, otters, martens, badgers, and allies), but have >failed to unambiguously resolve the position of this species relative >to mephitids (skunks and stink badgers). We examined the relationship >of the red panda to other extant species of the carnivoran suborder >Caniformia using a set of concatenated approximately 5.5-kb sequences >from protein-coding exons of five nuclear genes. Bayesian, maximum >likelihood, and parsimony phylogenetic analyses strongly supported >the red panda as the closest living relative of a clade containing >Procyonidae and Mustelidae to the exclusion of Mephitidae. These three >families together with the red panda (which is classified here as a >single extant species of a distinct family, Ailuridae) compose the >superfamily Musteloidea, a clade strongly supported by all our >phylogenetic analyses as sister to the monophyletic Pinnipedia (seals, >sea lions, walruses). The approximately unbiased, Kishino- Hasegawa, >and Templeton topology tests rejected (P < 0.05) each of all possible >alternative hypotheses about the relationships among the red panda and >mephitids, procyonids, and mustelids. We also estimated divergence >times for the red panda's lineage and ones of other caniform taxa, as >well as the ages of the first appearance datums for the crown and >total clades of musteloids and the total clades of the red panda, >mephitids, procyonids, and mustelids. Bayesian relaxed molecular-clock >analysis using combined information from all sampled genes yielded a >approximately 42-Myr timescale to caniform evolution and provided >evidence of five periods of increased diversification. The red panda's >lineage and those of other extant musteloid families are estimated to >have diverged during a 3-Myr interval from the mid-Early Oligocene to >near the Early/Late Oligocene boundary. We present fossil evidence >that extends the early adaptive radiation of the total clade of >musteloids to the Eocene-Oligocene transition and also suggests >Asia as a center of this radiation. > > PMID: 19699810 Sukie (not a vet) Recommended ferret health links: http://pets.groups.yahoo.com/group/ferrethealth/ http://ferrethealth.org/archive/ http://www.afip.org/ferrets/index.html http://www.miamiferret.org/ http://www.ferrethealth.msu.edu/ http://www.ferretcongress.org/ http://www.trifl.org/index.shtml http://homepage.mac.com/sukie/sukiesferretlinks.html all ferret topics: http://listserv.ferretmailinglist.org/archives/ferret-search.html [Posted in FML 6440]