几何形态学和古蛋白质学阐明了庞戈河古生物多样性
Jülide Kubat1,2, Ryan Paterson3, Ioannis Patramanis3
1CNRS, BABEL, Université Paris Cité, Paris, France.
PloS one
|December 15, 2023
概括
使用几何形态学和古蛋白质学研究化石猩猩牙,揭示了对已灭绝物种的洞察力. 虽然现代牙与化石牙不同,但精确的物种识别仍然具有挑战性,突出了正在进行的分类学辩论.
科学领域:
- 古生物学和进化生物学.
- 灵长类动物的进化
- 生物考古学的生物考古学
背景情况:
- 化石庞哥牙表现出显著的变化,使灭绝的猩猩物种的分类复杂化.
- 了解猩猩古生物多样性对于重建它们的进化历史和生物地理是至关重要的.
研究的目的:
- 通过对牙形态和牙面膜蛋白质的详细分析,调查化石庞哥的分类地位.
- 为了区分灭绝的猩猩物种及其与现存的庞戈马和庞戈阿贝利的关系.
主要方法:
- 几何形态测量应用到71个化石庞戈下的牙和牙结 (EDJ) 上.
- 在15颗化石牙上,用高分辨率的双重质谱分析了质蛋白的古蛋白质学分析.
- 与现存的Pongo pygmaeus和Pongo abelii.的43个下牙进行了比较分析.
主要成果:
- 几何形态测量揭示了化石和现代猩猩牙之间明显的EDJ形状变化.
- 古蛋白质组学分析无法一致区分P. pygmaeus和P. abelii,也无法将化石标本分配给现存的物种.
- 来自越南的化石样本与P. devosi一致,与P. weidenreichi有潜在的亲缘关系,这表明一种可能的时代物种.
- 一些化石标本显示与P. abelii的亲缘关系,可能代表现代猩猩的早期种群.
结论:
- 在EDJ中,化石和现代猩猩牙之间存在明显的形态差异.
- 目前的蛋白质学和形态学方法在确定灭绝的猩猩物种方面存在局限性.
- 需要进一步调查,以澄清爪化石庞戈群的分类学和族系学.
相关概念视频
Evolutionary Relationships through Genome Comparisons
5.7K
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...
5.7K
The Evidence for Evolution
42.8K
Genetic variations accumulating within populations over generations give rise to biological evolution. Evolutionary changes can result in the formation of novel varieties and entire new species. These changes are responsible for the diverse forms of life inhabiting the planet. The evidence for evolution suggests that all living organisms descended from common ancestors.
42.8K
The Fossil Record
25.2K
The fossil record documents only a small fraction of all organisms that have ever inhabited Earth. Fossilization is a rare process, and most organisms never become fossils. Moreover, the fossil record only exhibits fossils that have been discovered. Nevertheless, sedimentary rock fossils of long-lived, abundant, hard-bodied organisms dominate the fossil record. These fossils offer valuable information, such as an organism's physical form, behavior, and age. Studying the fossil record helps...
25.2K
Phylogeny
44.2K
Phylogeny is concerned with the evolutionary diversification of organisms or groups of organisms. A group of organisms with a name is called a taxon (singular). Taxa (plural) can span different levels of the evolutionary hierarchy. For instance, the group containing all birds is a taxon (comprising the class Aves), and the group of all species of daisies (the genus Bellis) is a taxon. Phylogenies can likewise include just one genus (i.e., depict species relationships) or span an entire kingdom.
44.2K
Gene Evolution - Fast or Slow?
7.1K
The genomes of eukaryotes are punctuated by long stretches of sequence which do not code for proteins or RNAs. Although some of these regions do contain crucial regulatory sequences, the vast majority of this DNA serves no known function. Typically, these regions of the genome are the ones in which the fastest change, in evolutionary terms, is observed, because there is typically little to no selection pressure acting on these regions to preserve their sequences.
In contrast, regions which code...
In contrast, regions which code...
7.1K


