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Spider monkey, Muriqui and Woolly monkey relationships revisited

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Abstract

The taxonomic relationships among the four genera of the Atelidae family, Alouatta (Howler), Ateles (Spider), Lagothrix (Woolly) and Brachyteles (Muriqui), have been the subject of great debate. In general, almost all authors agree with the assignment of Howler monkeys as the basal genus, either in its own tribe Alouattini or in the subfamily Alouattinae, but they disagree on the associations among the other members of the family. Muriquis have been grouped with Spider monkeys based on the fact that they share various behavioral and morphological characteristics. Cladistic analyses using morphological, biochemical, karyotype and behavioral characteristics depicted a phylogenetic tree that places Howler as the basal genus and the remaining genera in an unresolved politomy. More recent studies using molecular data have suggested that Muriqui and Woolly monkeys are sister groups. However, a recent study based on nuclear and mtDNA argued that politomy is what best represents the relationships among Spider, Woolly and Muriqui. To contribute to this debate we have added new data from two nuclear genes, Transferrin and von Willebrand Factor, and using an alignment of 17,997 bp we demonstrate that a total analysis strongly supports the Muriqui-Woolly clade. A gene-to-gene approach showed that four of the eight nuclear genes provide support for the Muriqui-Woolly clade, two strongly and two moderately, while none of the eight genes provide support for any alternative arrangement. The mitochondrial genes were not able to resolve the politomy. A possible reason for the difficulty in resolving atelid relationships may be the short period of time separating each cladogenetic event in the evolutionary process that shaped this family.

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Acknowledgements

This work was supported by National Research Council for the Scientific and Technological Development (CNPq) of Brazil and Federal University of Para (UFPA).

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  1. Horacio Schneider

    Present address: Alameda Leandro Ribeiro, Universidade Federal do Pará, s/n Bloco B, Instituto de Estudos Costeiros, Campus de Bragança, 68600-000, Bragança, Para, Brazil

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Genetics, Center of Biological Sciences, Federal University of Para, Belem, Para, Brazil

    Margarida Maria Celeira de Lima

  2. Institute of Coastal Studies, Bragança Campus, Federal University of Para, Bragança, Para, Brazil

    Iracilda Sampaio & Horacio Schneider

  3. Department of Biochemistry, Center of Biological Sciences, Federal University of Para, Belem, Para, Brazil

    Ricardo dos Santos Vieira

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  1. Margarida Maria Celeira de Lima
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  2. Iracilda Sampaio
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  3. Ricardo dos Santos Vieira
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  4. Horacio Schneider
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Correspondence to Horacio Schneider.

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de Lima, M.M.C., Sampaio, I., Vieira, R.d.S. et al. Spider monkey, Muriqui and Woolly monkey relationships revisited. Primates 48, 55–63 (2007). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10329-006-0012-3

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10329-006-0012-3

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