Details

Autor(en) / Beteiligte

• Marmi, Josep
• López-Giráldez, Juan Francisco
• Domingo-Roura, Xavier

Titel

Phylogeny, evolutionary history and taxonomy of the Mustelidae based on sequences of the cytochrome b gene and a complex repetitive flanking region

Ist Teil von

• Zoologica scripta, 2004-11, Vol.33 (6), p.481-499

Ort / Verlag

Oxford, UK: Blackwell Science Ltd

Erscheinungsjahr

2004

Quelle

Wiley Online Library

Beschreibungen/Notizen

• The Mustelidae is a diverse family of carnivores which includes weasels, polecats, mink, tayra, martens, otters, badgers and, according to some authors, skunks. Evolutionary relationships within the family are under debate at a number of different taxonomic levels, and incongruencies between molecular and morphological results are important. We analysed a total of 241 cytochrome b (cyt b) gene sequences and 33 sequences of a complex repetitive flanking region from 33 different species to compile an extensive molecular phylogeny for the Mustelidae. We analysed these sequences and constructed phylogenetic trees using Bayesian and neighbor‐joining methods that are evaluated to propose changes to the taxonomy of the family. The peripheral position of skunks in phylogenetic trees based on both loci suggests that they should be considered a separate family, Mephitidae. The subfamily Melinae is the basal group within the Mustelidae and trees based on the cyt b gene suggest that the American badger, Taxidea taxus, should be considered a separate monotypic subfamily, Taxidiinae. Otters classified within the genera Lutra, Amblonyx and Aonyx are grouped within the same clade in cyt b and combined partial cyt b and flanking region trees and show reduced levels of inter specific divergence, suggesting that they could be classified together under a single genus, Lutra. The Bayesian tree based on combined data from both loci supports the idea that subfamily Mustelinae is paraphyletic, as otters (subfamily Lutrinae) are included in this subfamily. Low levels of genetic divergence among European polecat, Mustela putorius, steppe polecat, Mustela eversmannii, and European mink, Mustela lutreola, suggest that these species could be considered subspecies within a single species, Mustela putorius. Our results are consistent with a rapid diversification of mustelid lineages in six different radiation episodes identified since the Early Eocene, the oldest events being the separation of subfamilies and the split of marten (Martes, Gulo) and weasel (Mustela) lineages in the Early Middle Miocene. The separation of New World from Old World lineages and the split of the remaining genera are estimated to have occurred in Late Miocene. The most recent events have been the differentiation of species within genera and this probably occurred in four radiation episodes at the end of Late Miocene, Early Pliocene, Late Pliocene and Pleistocene epochs.