K-Casein Gene Phylogeny of Higher Ruminants (Pecora, Artiodactyla)

To asses phylogenetic relationships among the higher ruminants (infraorder Percora, order Artiodactyla), we analyzed K-casein DNA sequences, including 434 nucleotides of the fourth exon. The higher ruminant families Bovidae, Cervidae, Giraffidae, and Antilocapridae each have monophyletic K-casein sequences. Maximum parsimony and distance analyses identify Giraffidae as a sister group to either Cervidae or a Bovidae-Ceridae […]

The phylogeny of Cetartiodactyla: The importance of dense taxon sampling, missing data, and the remarkable promise of cytochrome b to provide reliable species-level phylogenies

We perform Bayesian phylogenetic analyses on cytochrome b sequences from 264 of the 290 extant cetartiodactyl mammals (whales plus even-toed ungulates) and two recently extinct species, the ‘Mouse Goat’ and the ‘Irish Elk’. Previous primary analyses have included only a small portion of the species diversity within Cetartiodactyla, while a complete supertree analysis lacks resolution […]

A complete estimate of the phylogenetic relationships in Ruminantia: a dated species-level supertree of the extant ruminants

This paper presents the first complete estimate of the phylogenetic relationships among all 197 species of extant and recently extinct ruminants combining morphological, ethological and molecular information. The composite tree is derived by applying matrix representation using parsimony analysis to 164 previous partial estimates, and is remarkably well resolved, containing 159 nodes (>80% of the […]

Suidae, Tragulidae, Giraffidae, and Bovidae

The upper Miocene vertebrate locality of Küçükçekmece West, European Turkey, had provided an artiodactyl assemblage that is rich in species but poor in specimens. The present study allows revising previous artiodactyl lists provided for this site, by recognizing Hippopotamodon cf. antiquus, Dorcatherium maliki n. sp., Palaeotragus sp. (large size), Palaeogiraffa pamiri (Ozansoy, 1965), Bohlinia cf. […]