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Rethinking the Origin of Primates by Reconstructing Their Diel Activity Patterns Using Genetics and Morphology
Yonghua Wu1,2, Haifeng Wang3, Haitao Wang4
1School of Life Sciences, Northeast Normal University, 5268 Renmin Street, Changchun, 130024, China. wuyh442@nenu.edu.cn.
Scientific Reports
|September 21, 2017
Summary
Ancestral primates were primarily diurnal, with adaptations for bright light. Nocturnality evolved later in some lineages, such as Haplorrhini, influencing traits like the retinal fovea.
Area of Science:
- Evolutionary biology
- Primate evolution
- Visual ecology
Background:
- Primate ancestry is debated, with nocturnality often considered ancestral.
- Recent studies suggest diurnality might be the ancestral state for primates.
Purpose of the Study:
- To investigate the ancestral visual behavior of primates using phylogenetic and adaptive evolutionary analyses.
- To reassess the evolutionary timeline of visual adaptations like the retinal fovea.
Main Methods:
- Adaptive evolutionary analyses of phototransduction genes.
- Utilized various models including branch/branch-site and unrestricted branch-site models (BS-REL, BUSTED, RELAX).
Main Results:
- Ancestral primates showed strong positive selection for bright-light vision and weaker selection for dim-light vision.
- Evidence suggests ancestral primates were mainly diurnal with some crepuscularity.
- Relaxed selection on motion detection indicates a shift away from insectivory.
- Ancestral Haplorrhini likely evolved nocturnal behavior, with retinal fovea evolution occurring earlier than previously thought.
Conclusions:
- Diurnality is likely the plesiomorphic state for Euarchontoglires.
- The evolution of the retinal fovea, trichromatic vision, and orbital convergence in ancestral primates facilitated foraging for fruits/leaves.
- This challenges previous hypotheses about the timing of retinal fovea evolution within haplorrhines.
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