Whale ankles and evolutionary relationships

There are two main hypotheses for the relationships of the mammalian order Cetacea (comprising whales, dolphins and porpoises). The first hypothesis, mainly supported by DNA sequence data,, is that one of the groups of artiodactyls (for example, the hippopotamids) is the closest extant relative of w...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Nature (London) 1998-10, Vol.395 (6701), p.452-452
Main Authors: Thewissen, J. G. M, Madar, S. I, Hussain, S. T
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Animals
Ankle
Aquatic mammals
Artiodactyla
Artiodactyla - anatomy & histology
Artiodactyla - classification
Biochemistry
Biological Evolution
Cetacea
Fossils
Humanities and Social Sciences
Hypotheses
Marine
Marine mammals
Models, Biological
Morphology
multidisciplinary
Phylogeny
Science
Science (multidisciplinary)
scientific-correspondence
Tarsus, Animal - anatomy & histology
Ungulates
Whales
Whales & whaling
Whales - anatomy & histology
Whales - classification
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Summary:There are two main hypotheses for the relationships of the mammalian order Cetacea (comprising whales, dolphins and porpoises). The first hypothesis, mainly supported by DNA sequence data,, is that one of the groups of artiodactyls (for example, the hippopotamids) is the closest extant relative of whales and that Artiodactyla are paraphyletic if Cetacea are excluded from it. The second hypothesis, mainly supported by palaeontological data,, identifies mesonychians, a group of extinct archaic ungulates, as the sister group to whales. These two hypotheses are not mutually exclusive, because mesonychians and cetaceans could be sister groups, and this combined clade (Cete) could be the sister group to a group of artiodactyls.
ISSN:0028-0836
1476-4687
DOI:10.1038/26656