Nomenclature and placental mammal phylogeny - PubMed (original) (raw)

Nomenclature and placental mammal phylogeny

Robert J Asher et al. BMC Evol Biol. 2010.

Abstract

An issue arising from recent progress in establishing the placental mammal Tree of Life concerns the nomenclature of high-level clades. Fortunately, there are now several well-supported clades among extant mammals that require unambiguous, stable names. Although the International Code of Zoological Nomenclature does not apply above the Linnean rank of family, and while consensus on the adoption of competing systems of nomenclature does not yet exist, there is a clear, historical basis upon which to arbitrate among competing names for high-level mammalian clades. Here, we recommend application of the principles of priority and stability, as laid down by G.G. Simpson in 1945, to discriminate among proposed names for high-level taxa. We apply these principles to specific cases among placental mammals with broad relevance for taxonomy, and close with particular emphasis on the Afrotherian family Tenrecidae. We conclude that no matter how reconstructions of the Tree of Life change in years to come, systematists should apply new names reluctantly, deferring to those already published and maximizing consistency with existing nomenclature.

PubMed Disclaimer

Figures

Figure 1

Figure 1

Summary of placental mammal taxonomy based on the phylogeny of [2,3]. Authorship and content for high-level clades is given in Table 1; names for some competing hypotheses not shown here [e.g.,[29,30,78]] are given in Table 2.

Figure 2

Figure 2

Proposed taxonomy for afroinsectivoran mammals, maintaining common understanding of Tenrecidae [66] and priority of Tenrecoidea McDowell 1958 [27], based on the phylogeny of [62-64].

Similar articles

Cited by

References

    1. Murphy WJ, Eizirik E, O'Brien SJ, Madsen O, Scally M, Douady CJ, Teeling E, Ryder OA, Stanhope MJ, de Jong WW, Springer MS. Resolution of the early placental mammal radiation using Bayesian phylogenetics. Science. 2001;294(5550):2348–2351. doi: 10.1126/science.1067179. - DOI - PubMed
    1. Prasad AB, Allard MW, Program NCS, Green ED. Confirming the phylogeny of mammals by use of large comparative sequence data sets. Mol Biol Evol. 2008;25(9):1795–1808. doi: 10.1093/molbev/msn104. - DOI - PMC - PubMed
    1. Murphy WJ, Pringle TH, Crider TA, Springer MS, Miller W. Using genomic data to unravel the root of the placental mammal phylogeny. Genome Res. 2007;17(4):413–421. doi: 10.1101/gr.5918807. - DOI - PMC - PubMed
    1. Asher RJ. A web-database of mammalian morphology and a reanalysis of placental phylogeny. BMC Evol Biol. 2007;7:108. doi: 10.1186/1471-2148-7-108. - DOI - PMC - PubMed
    1. Asher RJ, Bennett N, Lehmann T. The new framework for understanding placental mammal evolution. Bioessays. 2009;31(8):853–864. doi: 10.1002/bies.200900053. - DOI - PubMed

MeSH terms

LinkOut - more resources