Over the past 10 years, the phylogenetic relationships among higher-level artiodactyl taxa have been examined with multiple data sets. Many of these data sets suggest that Artiodactyla (even-toed ungulates) is paraphyletic and that Cetacea (whales) represents a highly derived "artiodactyl" subgroup. In this report, phylogenetic relationships between Cetacea and artiodactyls are tested with a co...

Currently, gene sequence genealogies of the Oligotrichea Bütschli, 1889 comprise only few species. Therefore, a cladistic approach, especially to the Oligotrichida, was made, applying Hennig's method and computer programs. Twenty-three characters were selected and discussed, i.e., the morphology of the oral apparatus (five characters), the somatic ciliature (eight characters), special organelle...

This study infers the higher-level cladistic relationships of linyphiid spiders from five genes (mitochondrial CO1, 16S; nuclear 28S, 18S, histone H3) and morphological data. In total, the character matrix includes 47 taxa: 35 linyphiids representing the currently used subfamilies of Linyphiidae (Stemonyphantinae, Mynogleninae, Erigoninae, and Linyphiinae (Micronetini plus Linyphiini)) and 12 o...

BACKGROUND The relationships between early jawed vertebrates have been much debated, with cladistic analyses yielding little consensus on the position (or positions) of acanthodians with respect to other groups. Whereas one recent analysis showed various acanthodians (classically known as 'spiny sharks') as stem osteichthyans (bony fishes) and others as stem chondrichthyans, another shows the a...

Association studies, both family-based and population-based, can be powerful means of detecting disease-liability alleles. To increase the information of the test, various researchers have proposed targeting haplotypes. The larger number of haplotypes, however, relative to alleles at individual loci, could decrease power because of the additional degrees of freedom required for the test. An opt...

The early diversification of angiosperms in diverse ecological niches is poorly understood. Some have proposed an origin in a darkened forest habitat and others an open aquatic or near aquatic habitat. The research presented here centers on Montsechia vidalii, first recovered from lithographic limestone deposits in the Pyrenees of Spain more than 100 y ago. This fossil material has been poorly ...

The cultivated potato, Solanum tuberosum, ultimately traces its origin to Andean and Chilean landraces developed by pre-Colombian cultivators. These Andean landraces exhibit tremendous morphological and genetic diversity, and are distributed throughout the Andes, from western Venezuela to northern Argentina, and in southern Chile. The wild species progenitors of these landraces have long been i...

Transpositions of Alu sequences, representing the most abundant primate short interspersed elements (SINE), were evaluated as molecular cladistic markers to analyze the phylogenetic affiliations among the primate infraorders. Altogether 118 human loci, containing intronic Alu elements, were PCR analyzed for the presence of Alu sequences at orthologous sites in each of two strepsirhine, New Worl...

The genera Moscharia (two species) and Polyachyrus (seven species) form a monophyletic group within tribe Mutisieae, subtribe Nassauviinae, defined by the leaves with auricles at their bases, and the capitula with 1-seriate involucre. A cladistic analysis of the species of the two genera was carried out using 22 characters from life cycle, external morphology, pollen, and trichomes. Polarity of...