Project 200: M. A. O'Leary, J. H. Geisler. 1999. The Position of Cetacea Within Mammalia: Phylogenetic Analysis of Morphological Data from Extinct and Extant Taxa. Systematic Biology. 48 (3):455-490.
Abstract
Knowledge of the phylogenetic position of the order Cetacea (whales, dolphins, and porpoises) within Mammalia is of central importance to evolutionary biologists studying the transformations of biological form and function that accompanied the shift from fully terrestrial to fully aquatic life in this clade. Phylogenies based on molecular data and those based on morphological data both place cetaceans among ungulates but are incongruent in other respects. Morphologists argue that cetaceans are most closely related to mesonychians, an extinct group of terrestrial ungulates. They have disagreed, however, as to whether Perissodactyla (odd-toed ungulates) or Artiodactyla (even-toed ungulates) is the extant clade most closely related to Cetacea, and have long maintained that each of these orders is monophyletic. The great majority of molecule-based phylogenies show, by contrast, not only that artiodactyls are the closest extant relatives of Cetacea, but also that Artiodactyla is paraphyletic unless cetaceans are nested within it, often as the sister group of hippopotamids. We tested morphological evidence for several hypotheses concerning the sister taxon relationships of Cetacea in a maximum parsimony analysis of 123 morphological characters from 10 extant and 30 extinct taxa. We advocate treating certain multistate characters as ordered because such a procedure incorporates information about hierarchical morphological transformation. In all most-parsimonious trees, whether multistate characters are ordered or unordered, Artiodactyla is the extant sister taxon of Cetacea. With certain multistate characters ordered, the extinct clade Mesonychia (Mesonychidae + Hapalodectidae) is the sister taxon of Cetacea, and Artiodactyla is monophyletic. When all fossils are removed from the analysis, Artiodactyla is paraphyletic with Cetacea nested inside, indicating that inclusion of mesonychians and other extinct stem taxa in a phylogenetic analysis of the ungulate clade is integral to the recovery of artiodactyl monophyly. Phylogenies derived from molecular data alone may risk recovering inconsistent branches because of an inability to sample extinct clades, which by a conservative estimate, amount to 89% of the ingroup. Addition of data from recently described astragali attributed to cetaceans does not overturn artiodactyl monophyly.Read the article »
Article DOI: 10.1080/106351599260102
Project DOI: 10.7934/P200, http://dx.doi.org/10.7934/P200
This project contains | Matrices |
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Download Project SDD File | Total scored cells: 3545 Total media associated with cells: 0 Total labels associated with cell media: 0 |
Characters | |
Total characters: 123 Total characters with associated media: 0 Total characters with media with labels: 0 Total character states: 289 Total character states with associated media: 0 Total character states with media with labels:0 Total unordered/ordered characters:123/0 |
Currently Viewing:
MorphoBank Project 200
MorphoBank Project 200
- Creation Date:
13 March 2008 - Publication Date:
14 May 2015 - Project views: 29233
- Media downloads: 1
- Matrix downloads: 18
Authors' Institutions
- American Museum of Natural History
- Stony Brook University
Members
member name | taxa | specimens | media | media notes | chars | character
| cell scorings (scored, NPA, "-") | cell
| rules | ||||||||||
Maureen O'Leary Project Administrator | 42 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 123 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 3545 (3545, 0, 0) | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
Taxonomic Overview for Matrix 'M563' (40 Taxa)
taxon | unscored cells |
scored cells |
no cell support |
NPA cells |
"-" cells | cell images | labels on cell images |
member access |
[1] Tursiops Last Modified in 12/05/13 | 64 | 59 | 59 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 |
[2] Balaenoptera Last Modified in 12/05/13 | 65 | 58 | 58 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 |
[3] † Dorudon Last Modified in 05/14/15 | 33 | 91 | 90 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 |
[4] Basilosaurus Last Modified in 12/05/13 | 29 | 95 | 94 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 |
[5] † Protocetus Last Modified in 05/14/15 | 70 | 53 | 53 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 |
[6] † Cross whale Last Modified in 05/14/15 | 83 | 41 | 40 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 |
[7] † Remingtonocetus Last Modified in 05/14/15 | 78 | 46 | 45 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 |
[8] † Ambulocetus Last Modified in 05/14/15 | 58 | 67 | 65 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 |
[9] † Pakicetus Last Modified in 05/14/15 | 58 | 67 | 65 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 |
[10] † Harpagolestes Last Modified in 05/14/15 | 52 | 72 | 71 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 |
[11] † Synoplotherium Last Modified in 05/14/15 | 36 | 88 | 87 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 |
[12] † Mesonyx Last Modified in 05/14/15 | 21 | 103 | 102 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 |
[13] † Pachyaena Last Modified in 05/14/15 | 36 | 92 | 87 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 |
[14] † Sinonyx Last Modified in 05/14/15 | 50 | 73 | 73 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 |
[15] † Ankalagon Last Modified in 05/14/15 | 71 | 52 | 52 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 |
[16] † Dissacus Last Modified in 05/14/15 | 49 | 76 | 74 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 |
[17] † Hapalodectes Last Modified in 05/14/15 | 57 | 68 | 66 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 |
[18] † Eoconodon Last Modified in 05/14/15 | 48 | 76 | 75 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 |
[19] † Andrewsarchus Last Modified in 05/14/15 | 93 | 32 | 30 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 |
[20] Tragulus Last Modified in 12/05/13 | 8 | 119 | 115 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 |
[21] Ovis Last Modified in 12/05/13 | 6 | 117 | 117 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 |
[22] Camelus Last Modified in 12/05/13 | 4 | 119 | 119 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 |
[23] † Poebrotherium Last Modified in 05/14/15 | 14 | 109 | 109 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 |
[24] † Agriochoerus Last Modified in 05/14/15 | 19 | 106 | 104 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 |
[25] Sus Last Modified in 12/05/13 | 3 | 120 | 120 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 |
[26] † Hexaprotodon Last Modified in 05/14/15 | 16 | 108 | 107 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 |
[27] Hippopotamus Last Modified in 12/05/13 | 8 | 117 | 115 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 |
[28] † Elomeryx Last Modified in 05/14/15 | 15 | 108 | 108 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 |
[29] † Archaeotherium Last Modified in 05/14/15 | 14 | 110 | 109 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 |
[30] † Diacodexis Last Modified in 05/14/15 | 21 | 104 | 102 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 |
[31] Equus Last Modified in 12/05/13 | 12 | 111 | 111 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 |
[32] † Hyracotherium Last Modified in 05/14/15 | 20 | 104 | 103 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 |
[33] † Heptodon Last Modified in 05/14/15 | 26 | 97 | 97 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 |
[34] † Meniscotherium Last Modified in 05/14/15 | 25 | 100 | 98 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 |
[35] † Phenacodus Last Modified in 05/14/15 | 20 | 106 | 103 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 |
[36] † Hyopsodus Last Modified in 05/14/15 | 26 | 98 | 97 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 |
[37] † Arctocyon Last Modified in 05/14/15 | 26 | 97 | 97 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 |
[38] † Leptictis Last Modified in 05/14/15 | 21 | 102 | 102 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 |
[39] † Asioryctes Last Modified in 05/14/15 | 45 | 79 | 78 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 |
[40] Didelphis Last Modified in 12/05/13 | 18 | 105 | 105 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 |
Project views
type | number of views | Individual items viewed (where applicable) |
Total project views | 29233 | |
Project overview | 3710 | |
Matrix views | 2830 | Matrix landing page (2536 views); All Morphology (294 views); |
Media views | 6527 | Media search (5637 views); M377815 (890 views); |
Taxon list | 11315 | |
Specimen list | 2976 | |
Views for media list | 1725 | |
Documents list | 5 | |
Bibliography | 145 |
Project downloads
type | number of downloads | Individual items downloaded (where applicable) |
Total downloads from project | 362 | |
Matrix downloads | 18 | All Morphology (18 downloads); |
Project downloads | 343 | |
Media downloads | 1 | M377815 (1 download); |