Abstract
The origin of whales and their transition from terrestrial life to a fully aquatic existence has been studied in depth. Palaeontological1,2, morphological3 and molecular studies4,5,6,7 suggest that the order Cetacea (whales, dolphins and porpoises) is more closely related to the order Artiodactyla (even-toed ungulates, including cows, camels and pigs) than to other ungulate orders. The traditional view that the order Artiodactyla is monophyletic has been challenged by molecular analyses of variations in mitochondrial and nuclear DNA5,6,7. We have characterized two families of short interspersed elements (SINEs) that were present exclusively in the genomes of whales, ruminants and hippopotamuses, but not in those of camels and pigs. We made an extensive survey of retropositional events that might have occurred during the divergence of whales and even-toed ungulates. We have characterized nine retropositional events of a SINE unit, each of which provides phylogenetic resolution of the relationships among whales, ruminants, hippopotamuses and pigs. Our data provide evidence that whales, ruminants and hippopotamuses form a monophyletic group.
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Acknowledgements
We thank the Zoological Society of San Diego's Center and Y. Mukai in the Meat Hygenic Inspection Office in Ueda, Nagano prefecture for providing a sample of DNA from the lesser Malayan chevrotain and samples of DNA from calf, pig and sheep, respectively. This work was supported by a Grant-in-Aid for Specially Promoted Research from the Ministry of Education, Science, Sports and Culture of Japan.
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Shimamura, M., Yasue, H., Ohshima, K. et al. Molecular evidence from retroposons that whales form a clade within even-toed ungulates. Nature 388, 666–670 (1997). https://doi.org/10.1038/41759
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/41759
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