Evidence for a recent origin of penguins
Penguins are a remarkable group of birds, with the 18 extant species living in diverse climatic zones from the tropics to Antarctica. The timing of the origin of these extant penguins remains controversial. Previous studies based on DNA sequences and fossil records have suggested widely differing ti...
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ftgriffithuniv:oai:research-repository.griffith.edu.au:10072/57567 2023-05-15T13:37:02+02:00 Evidence for a recent origin of penguins Sankarasubramanian, Sankar Beans-Picon, Gabrielle K. Swaminathan, Siva D. Millar, Craig Lambert, David 2013 application/pdf http://hdl.handle.net/10072/57567 https://doi.org/10.1098/rsbl.2013.0748 English en_US eng The Royal Society Biology letters © 2013 Royal Society. This is the author-manuscript version of this paper. Reproduced in accordance with the copyright policy of the publisher. Please refer to the journal website for access to the definitive, published version. Phylogeny and Comparative Analysis Journal article 2013 ftgriffithuniv https://doi.org/10.1098/rsbl.2013.0748 2018-07-30T10:47:34Z Penguins are a remarkable group of birds, with the 18 extant species living in diverse climatic zones from the tropics to Antarctica. The timing of the origin of these extant penguins remains controversial. Previous studies based on DNA sequences and fossil records have suggested widely differing times for the origin of the group. This has given rise to widely differing biogeographic narratives about their evolution. To resolve this problem, we sequenced five introns from 11 species representing all genera of living penguins. Using these data and other available DNA sequences, together with the ages of multiple penguin fossils to calibrate the molecular clock, we estimated the age of the most recent common ancestor of extant penguins to be 20.4 Myr (17.0-23.8 Myr). This time is half of the previous estimates based on molecular sequence data. Our results suggest that most of the major groups of extant penguins diverged 11-16 Ma. This overlaps with the sharp decline in Antarctic temperatures that began approximately 12 Ma, suggesting a possible relationship between climate change and penguin evolution. Griffith Sciences, Griffith School of Environment Full Text Article in Journal/Newspaper Antarc* Antarctic Antarctica Griffith University: Griffith Research Online Antarctic Griffith ENVELOPE(-155.500,-155.500,-85.883,-85.883) Biology Letters 9 6 20130748 |
institution |
Open Polar |
collection |
Griffith University: Griffith Research Online |
op_collection_id |
ftgriffithuniv |
language |
English |
topic |
Phylogeny and Comparative Analysis |
spellingShingle |
Phylogeny and Comparative Analysis Sankarasubramanian, Sankar Beans-Picon, Gabrielle K. Swaminathan, Siva D. Millar, Craig Lambert, David Evidence for a recent origin of penguins |
topic_facet |
Phylogeny and Comparative Analysis |
description |
Penguins are a remarkable group of birds, with the 18 extant species living in diverse climatic zones from the tropics to Antarctica. The timing of the origin of these extant penguins remains controversial. Previous studies based on DNA sequences and fossil records have suggested widely differing times for the origin of the group. This has given rise to widely differing biogeographic narratives about their evolution. To resolve this problem, we sequenced five introns from 11 species representing all genera of living penguins. Using these data and other available DNA sequences, together with the ages of multiple penguin fossils to calibrate the molecular clock, we estimated the age of the most recent common ancestor of extant penguins to be 20.4 Myr (17.0-23.8 Myr). This time is half of the previous estimates based on molecular sequence data. Our results suggest that most of the major groups of extant penguins diverged 11-16 Ma. This overlaps with the sharp decline in Antarctic temperatures that began approximately 12 Ma, suggesting a possible relationship between climate change and penguin evolution. Griffith Sciences, Griffith School of Environment Full Text |
format |
Article in Journal/Newspaper |
author |
Sankarasubramanian, Sankar Beans-Picon, Gabrielle K. Swaminathan, Siva D. Millar, Craig Lambert, David |
author_facet |
Sankarasubramanian, Sankar Beans-Picon, Gabrielle K. Swaminathan, Siva D. Millar, Craig Lambert, David |
author_sort |
Sankarasubramanian, Sankar |
title |
Evidence for a recent origin of penguins |
title_short |
Evidence for a recent origin of penguins |
title_full |
Evidence for a recent origin of penguins |
title_fullStr |
Evidence for a recent origin of penguins |
title_full_unstemmed |
Evidence for a recent origin of penguins |
title_sort |
evidence for a recent origin of penguins |
publisher |
The Royal Society |
publishDate |
2013 |
url |
http://hdl.handle.net/10072/57567 https://doi.org/10.1098/rsbl.2013.0748 |
long_lat |
ENVELOPE(-155.500,-155.500,-85.883,-85.883) |
geographic |
Antarctic Griffith |
geographic_facet |
Antarctic Griffith |
genre |
Antarc* Antarctic Antarctica |
genre_facet |
Antarc* Antarctic Antarctica |
op_relation |
Biology letters |
op_rights |
© 2013 Royal Society. This is the author-manuscript version of this paper. Reproduced in accordance with the copyright policy of the publisher. Please refer to the journal website for access to the definitive, published version. |
op_doi |
https://doi.org/10.1098/rsbl.2013.0748 |
container_title |
Biology Letters |
container_volume |
9 |
container_issue |
6 |
container_start_page |
20130748 |
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1766087185866424320 |