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Related Concept Videos

Speciation Rates01:07

Speciation Rates

Speciation can proceed at markedly different rates, and evolutionary biologists commonly describe these differences through the models of gradualism and punctuated equilibrium. Both patterns explain how new species arise, but they differ in the tempo and continuity of evolutionary change. In both cases, evolutionary change arises from heritable variation within populations, with natural selection often shaping traits that improve survival and reproduction under specific environmental conditions.
Synteny and Evolution02:31

Synteny and Evolution

John H. Renwick first coined the term “synteny” in 1971, which refers to the genes present on the same chromosomes, even if they are not genetically linked. The species with common ancestry tend to show conserved syntenic regions. Therefore, the concept of synteny is nowadays used to describe the evolutionary relationship between species.
Around 80 million years ago, the human and mice lineages diverged from the common ancestor. During the course of evolution, the ancestral chromosome underwent...
Evolutionary Relationships through Genome Comparisons02:54

Evolutionary Relationships through Genome Comparisons

Genome comparison is one of the excellent ways to interpret the evolutionary relationships between organisms. The basic principle of genome comparison is that if two species share a common feature, it is likely encoded by the DNA sequence conserved between both species. The advent of genome sequencing technologies in the late 20th century enabled scientists to understand the concept of conservation of domains between species and helped them to deduce evolutionary relationships across diverse...
What is Evolutionary History?02:35

What is Evolutionary History?

Scientists record evolutionary history by analyzing fossil, morphological, and genetic data. The fossil record documents the history of life on Earth and provides evidence for evolution. However, both fossil and living organisms offer evidence that outlines Earth’s evolutionary history.Phylogenetic trees illustrate the evolutionary relationships among these organisms. Scientists infer organisms’ common ancestry by evaluating shared morphological and genetic characteristics. Together, the fossil...
Phylogenetic Trees03:21

Phylogenetic Trees

Phylogenetic trees come in many forms. It matters in which sequence the organisms are arranged from the bottom to the top of the tree, but the branches can rotate at their nodes without altering the information. The lines connecting individual nodes can be straight, angled, or even curved.The length of the branches can depict time or the relative amount of change among organisms. For instance, the branch length might indicate the number of amino acid changes in the sequence that underlies the...
Life Histories01:29

Life Histories

Constrained by limited energy and resources, organisms must compromise between offspring quantity and parental investment. This trade-off is represented by two primary reproductive strategies; K-strategists produce few offspring but provide substantial parental support, whereas r-strategists produce much progeny that receives little care. These strategies are related to an organism’s survival likelihood across its lifespan, which is represented by a survivorship curve. Three general types of...

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Related Experiment Video

Updated: Jun 25, 2026

Resurrection of Dormant Daphnia magna: Protocol and Applications
07:37

Resurrection of Dormant Daphnia magna: Protocol and Applications

Published on: January 19, 2018

Estimating primate divergence times by using conditioned birth-and-death processes.

Richard D Wilkinson1, Simon Tavaré

  • 1Department of Probability and Statistics, University of Sheffield, Hicks Building, Sheffield, United Kingdom. r.d.wilkinson@sheffield.ac.uk

Theoretical Population Biology
|March 10, 2009
PubMed
Summary

The primate fossil record suggests a divergence time of at least 54.8 million years ago. However, this study

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Area of Science:

  • Paleontology
  • Evolutionary Biology
  • Biomathematics

Background:

  • The primate fossil record offers a minimum divergence time of 54.8 million years ago.
  • Explicit divergence time estimates for primates are lacking.
  • Understanding primate origins is crucial for evolutionary studies.

Purpose of the Study:

  • To estimate the primate divergence time distribution.
  • To integrate fossil data, extant species diversity, and phylogenetic structure.
  • To investigate the possibility of a Cretaceous origin for primates.

Main Methods:

  • Combined Cenozoic diversification patterns with a speciation model.
  • Utilized primate fossil record, extant species counts, and phylogenetic tree structure.
  • Derived a conditioned birth-and-death process for subtree origins.

Main Results:

  • Generated a joint distribution for primate and anthropoid divergence times.
  • The derived birth-and-death process accounts for size-biased laws and immortal lineages.
  • A Cretaceous origin for primates cannot be excluded by the current model.

Conclusions:

  • The study provides a probabilistic estimate for primate divergence.
  • The model allows for a broader range of divergence times than previously considered.
  • Further research may refine the understanding of early primate evolution and origins.