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Flying lemurs are primates' closest cousins mongabay.com November 1, 2007
The question over which of several mammalian groups is the closest relative to primates has been hotly debated over the past decade. Some scientists have suggested that the group Scandentia, which includes the small tree shrew, while others have argued for dermopterans, a group that includes two living species of colugos -- more popularly known as flying lemurs, though they cannot fly (they glide) and are not lemurs. Until now there were three leading hypotheses on the relationship between the groups.
"We decided to design an exacting study that would test the three hypotheses using two independent molecular approaches," said Penn State's Webb Miller, a professor of biology and computer science and engineering. "Before evaluating the different hypotheses, we wanted to make sure that the Euarchonta was, indeed, a valid evolutionary group that had arisen from a single ancestral lineage." "In short, these molecular data strongly suggest that colugos are the sister group to primates," he continued. "Based on these data, the most probable phylogeny is that the Euarchonta arose as a distinct taxonomic group at 87.9 million years ago -- during the heyday of the dinosaurs, more than 20 million years before they went extinct." Miller says the finding that colugos are closely related to primates makes them more important as research subjects. This article is based on a news release from Penn State. J.E. Janecka et al (2007). Molecular and Genomic Data Identify the Closest Living Relative of Primates. Science Nov 2, 2007.
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