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Cladistics is an approach to biological classification in which organisms are categorized in groups ("clades") based on hypotheses of most recent common ancestry. The evidence for hypothesized relationships is typically shared derived characteristics (synapomorphies) that are not present in more distant groups and ancestors. However, from an empirical perspective, common ancestors are inferences based on a cladistic hypothesis of relationships of taxa whose character states can be observed. Theoretically, a last common ancestor and all its descendants constitute a (minimal) clade. Importantly, all descendants stay in their overarching ancestral clade. For example, if the terms worms or fishes were used within a strict cladistic framework, these terms would include humans. Many of these terms are normally used paraphyletically, outside of cladistics, e.g. as a 'grade', which are fruitless to precisely delineate, especially when including extinct species. Radiation results in the generation of new subclades by bifurcation, but in practice sexual hybridization may blur very closely related groupings.
In biological phylogenetics, a clade, also known as a monophyletic group or natural group, is a grouping of organisms that are monophyletic – that is, composed of a common ancestor and all its lineal descendants – on a phylogenetic tree. In the taxonomical literature, sometimes the Latin form cladus is used rather than the English form. Clades are the fundamental unit of cladistics, a modern approach to taxonomy adopted by most biological fields.
Apes are a clade of Old World simians native to sub-Saharan Africa and Southeast Asia, which together with its sister group Cercopithecidae form the catarrhine clade, cladistically making them monkeys. Apes do not have tails due to a mutation of the TBXT gene. In traditional and non-scientific use, the term ape can include tailless primates taxonomically considered Cercopithecidae, and is thus not equivalent to the scientific taxon Hominoidea. There are two extant branches of the superfamily Hominoidea: the gibbons, or lesser apes; and the hominids, or great apes.
Vertebrate paleontology is the subfield of paleontology that seeks to discover, through the study of fossilized remains, the behavior, reproduction and appearance of extinct vertebrates. It also tries to connect, by using the evolutionary timeline, the animals of the past and their modern-day relatives.
A living fossil is an extant taxon that phenotypically resembles related species known only from the fossil record. To be considered a living fossil, the fossil species must be old relative to the time of origin of the extant clade. Living fossils commonly are of species-poor lineages, but they need not be. While the body plan of a living fossil remains superficially similar, it is never the same species as the remote relatives it resembles, because genetic drift would inevitably change its chromosomal structure.
Evolutionary taxonomy, evolutionary systematics or Darwinian classification is a branch of biological classification that seeks to classify organisms using a combination of phylogenetic relationship, progenitor-descendant relationship, and degree of evolutionary change. This type of taxonomy may consider whole taxa rather than single species, so that groups of species can be inferred as giving rise to new groups. The concept found its most well-known form in the modern evolutionary synthesis of the early 1940s.
In paleontology, a Lazarus taxon is a taxon that disappears for one or more periods from the fossil record, only to appear again later. Likewise in conservation biology and ecology, it can refer to species or populations that were thought to be extinct, and are rediscovered. The term Lazarus taxon was coined by Karl W. Flessa and David Jablonski in 1983 and was then expanded by Jablonski in 1986. Paul Wignall and Michael Benton defined Lazarus taxa as, "At times of biotic crisis many taxa go extinct, but others only temporarily disappeared from the fossil record, often for intervals measured in millions of years, before reappearing unchanged". Earlier work also supports the concept though without using the name Lazarus taxon, like work by Christopher R. C. Paul.
In paleontology, an Elvis taxon is a taxon that has been misidentified as having re-emerged in the fossil record after a period of presumed extinction, but is not actually a descendant of the original taxon, instead having developed a similar morphology by convergent evolution. This implies that the extinction of the original taxon is real, and one taxon containing specimens from before and after the extinction would be polyphyletic.
Pseudoextinction of a species occurs when all members of the species are extinct, but members of a daughter species remain alive. The term pseudoextinction refers to the evolution of a species into a new form, with the resultant disappearance of the ancestral form. Pseudoextinction results in the relationship between ancestor and descendant still existing even though the ancestor species no longer exists.
Necrolemur is a small bodied omomyid with body mass estimations ranging from 114 grams to 346 grams. Necrolemur’s teeth feature broad basins and blunt cusps, suggesting their diet consisted of mostly soft fruit, though examination of microwear patterns suggests that populations from lower latitudes also consumed insects and gums. While they do not sport a true tooth comb like modern lemurs, microwear patterns on their lower incisors suggest they engaged in fur grooming behaviors. Like tarsiers, Necrolemur had large, front-facing, close set eyes and were likely nocturnal. Analysis of cranial and postcranial fossils by paleontologists suggest members of the family Omomyidae, including the genus Necrolemur, possessed highly specialized adaptations for leaping.
Thecodontia, now considered an obsolete taxonomic grouping, was formerly used to describe a diverse "order" of early archosaurian reptiles that first appeared in the latest Permian period and flourished until the end of the Triassic period. All of them were built somewhat like crocodiles but with shorter skulls, more erect pose and usually somewhat lighter. The group includes the ancestors of dinosaurs, pterosaurs, and crocodilians, as well as a number of extinct forms that did not give rise to any descendants. The term thecodont is still used as an anatomical description of the tooth morphology seen in these species and others.
Phylogenetic bracketing is a method of inference used in biological sciences. It is used to infer the likelihood of unknown traits in organisms based on their position in a phylogenetic tree. One of the main applications of phylogenetic bracketing is on extinct organisms, known only from fossils, going all the way back to the last universal common ancestor (LUCA). The method is often used for understanding traits that do not fossilize well, such as soft tissue anatomy, physiology and behaviour. By considering the closest and second-closest well-known organisms, traits can be asserted with a fair degree of certainty, though the method is extremely sensitive to problems from convergent evolution.
Archaeolemur is an extinct genus of subfossil lemurs known from the Holocene epoch of Madagascar. Archaeolemur is one of the most common and well-known of the extinct giant lemurs as hundreds of its bones have been discovered in fossil deposits across the island. It was larger than any extant lemur, with a body mass of approximately 18.2–26.5 kg (40–58 lb), and is commonly reconstructed as the most frugivorous and terrestrial of the fossil Malagasy primates. Colloquially known as a "monkey lemur," Archaeolemur has often been compared with anthropoids, specifically the cercopithecines, due to various morphological convergences. In fact, it was even misidentified as a monkey when remains were first discovered. Following human arrival to Madagascar just over 2000 years ago, many of the island’s megafauna went extinct, including the giant lemurs. Radiocarbon dating indicates that Archaeolemur survived on Madagascar until at least 1040-1290 AD, outliving most other subfossil lemurs.
The Hominidae, whose members are known as the great apes or hominids, are a taxonomic family of primates that includes eight extant species in four genera: Pongo ; Gorilla ; Pan ; and Homo, of which only modern humans remain.
Dinopithecus is an extinct genus of very large primates closely related to the baboon, that lived during the Pliocene and Pleistocene epochs in South Africa and Ethiopia. It was named by British paleontologist Robert Broom in 1937. The only species currently recognized is Dinopithecus ingens, as D. quadratirostris has been reassigned to the genus Soromandrillus. It is known from several infilled cave sites in South Africa, all of early Pleistocene age, including Skurweberg, Swartkrans, and Sterkfontein.
A ghost lineage is a hypothesized ancestor in a species lineage that has left no fossil evidence, but can still be inferred to exist or have existed because of gaps in the fossil record or genomic evidence. The process of determining a ghost lineage relies on fossilized evidence before and after the hypothetical existence of the lineage and extrapolating relationships between organisms based on phylogenetic analysis. Ghost lineages assume unseen diversity in the fossil record and serve as predictions for what the fossil record could eventually yield; these hypotheses can be tested by unearthing new fossils or running phylogenetic analyses.
Hadropithecus is a medium-sized, extinct genus of lemur, or strepsirrhine primate, from Madagascar that includes a single species, Hadropithecus stenognathus. Due to its rarity and lack of sufficient skeletal remains, it is one of the least understood of the extinct lemurs. Both it and Archaeolemur are collectively known as "monkey lemurs" or "baboon lemurs" due to body plans and dentition that suggest a terrestrial lifestyle and a diet similar to that of modern baboons. Hadropithecus had extended molars and a short, powerful jaw, suggesting that it was both a grazer and a seed predator.
The evolutionary history of the primates can be traced back 57-90 million years. One of the oldest known primate-like mammal species, Plesiadapis, came from North America; another, Archicebus, came from China. Other similar basal primates were widespread in Eurasia and Africa during the tropical conditions of the Paleocene and Eocene. Purgatorius is the genus of the four extinct species believed to be the earliest example of a primate or a proto-primate, a primatomorph precursor to the Plesiadapiformes, dating to as old as 66 million years ago.
The following outline is provided as an overview of and topical guide to evolution:
Torrejonia is a genus of extinct plesiadapiform that belongs to the family Palaechthonidae. There are currently two species known, T. wilsoni and T. sirokyi. This genus is present in the fossil record from around 62–58 Ma. Species belonging to this genus are suggested to be plesiadapiforms based on adaptations observed in the skeletal morphology consistent with arboreal locomotor behavior. Following the mass extinction event at the Cretaceous–Paleogene boundary (K-Pg), a large diversity of plesiadapiform families were documented beginning at the Torrejonian NALMA. Research has shown that T. wilsoni is one of the largest palaechthonids and is reconstructed as being more frugivorous than other palaechthonids.
References
- 1 2 Ayala, Francisco J.; Avise, John C. (2014-03-15). Essential readings in evolutionary biology. Ayala, Francisco José, 1934-, Avise, John C. Baltimore. ISBN 978-1421413051. OCLC 854285705.
{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link) - 1 2 Shennan, Stephan (2009). Pattern and Process in Cultural Evolution. University of California Press. p. 115. ISBN 978-0520255999.
- ↑ Masatoshi., Nei (1987). Molecular evolutionary genetics. New York: Columbia University Press. ISBN 978-0231063210. OCLC 13945914.
- ↑ Bynum, William F. (July 2014). Dictionary of the history of science. Bynum, W. F. (William F.), 1943-, Browne, E. J. (E. Janet), 1950-, Porter, Roy, 1946-2002. Princeton, New Jersey. ISBN 978-0691614717. OCLC 889248984.
{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link) - ↑ Shiel, Lisa A. (2011). Creature of controversy : a candid look at the hidden world of Bigfoot research & the men and women who hunt for a legend. Lake Linden, MI: Jacobsville Books. ISBN 978-1934631423. OCLC 818361503.
- ↑ Fara, Emmanuel (19 April 2000). "What are Lazarus taxa?" (PDF). Archived from the original (PDF) on 1 August 2016. Retrieved 30 November 2017.
- ↑ MacPhee, Ross D. E.; Sues, Hans-Dieter (2010-12-07). Extinctions in near time: causes, contexts, and consequences. MacPhee, R. D. E. New York. ISBN 9781441933157. OCLC 887840635.
{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link) - ↑ Fisher, Diana O.; Blomberg, Simon P. (2011-04-07). "Correlates of rediscovery and the detectability of extinction in mammals". Proceedings of the Royal Society of London B: Biological Sciences. 278 (1708): 1090–1097. doi:10.1098/rspb.2010.1579. ISSN 0962-8452. PMC 3049027 . PMID 20880890.
- ↑ Maisels, F.; Devreese, L. (2020). "Piliocolobus bouvieri". IUCN Red List of Threatened Species . 2020: e.T18250A166600357. doi: 10.2305/IUCN.UK.2020-1.RLTS.T18250A166600357.en . Retrieved 12 November 2021.
- ↑ (PDF) https://web.archive.org/web/20180324220047/https://ib.berkeley.edu/courses/ib200b/lect/ib200b_lect10_Lindberg_fossils_in_phylogenies.pdf. Archived from the original (PDF) on 2018-03-24. Retrieved 2024-02-21.
{{cite web}}: Missing or empty|title=(help) - ↑ Grieco, Theresa M.; Rizk, Oliver T.; Hlusko, Leslea J. (2012-09-07). "Development". Data from: A modular framework characterizes micro- and macroevolution of Old World monkey dentitions (Data Set). Dryad Digital Repository. doi:10.5061/dryad.693j8.
