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Bracketing phenogenotypic limits of mammalian hybridization
- Source :
- Royal Society Open Science, Royal Society Open Science, Vol 5, Iss 11 (2018)
- Publication Year :
- 2018
-
Abstract
- An increasing number of mammalian species have been shown to have a history of hybridization and introgression based on genetic analyses. Only relatively few fossils, however, preserve genetic material, and morphology must be used to identify the species and determine whether morphologically intermediate fossils could represent hybrids. Because dental and cranial fossils are typically the key body parts studied in mammalian palaeontology, here we bracket the potential for phenotypically extreme hybridizations by examining uniquely preserved cranio-dental material of a captive hybrid between grey and ringed seals. We analysed how distinct these species are genetically and morphologically, how easy it is to identify the hybrids using morphology and whether comparable hybridizations happen in the wild. We show that the genetic distance between these species is more than twice the modern human–Neanderthal distance, but still within that of morphologically similar species pairs known to hybridize. By contrast, morphological and developmental analyses show grey and ringed seals to be highly disparate, and that the hybrid is a predictable intermediate. Genetic analyses of the parent populations reveal introgression in the wild, suggesting that grey–ringed seal hybridization is not limited to captivity. Taken together, we postulate that there is considerable potential for mammalian hybridization between phenotypically disparate taxa.
- Subjects :
- 0106 biological sciences
0301 basic medicine
Morphology
SUPERNUMERARY TEETH
Introgression
dental
introgression
Biology
010603 evolutionary biology
01 natural sciences
SEQUENCE
Gene flow
03 medical and health sciences
Developmental conservation
EVOLUTIONARY HISTORY
Genetic algorithm
morphology
GENE FLOW
lcsh:Science
Bracketing
SPECIATION
developmental conservation
Multidisciplinary
Disparity
Biology (Whole Organism)
species hybridization
Species hybridization
INDIVIDUALS
030104 developmental biology
disparity
Evolutionary biology
DENTITION
1181 Ecology, evolutionary biology
Dental
lcsh:Q
SEAL
Research Article
GENERATION
Subjects
Details
- Language :
- English
- Database :
- OpenAIRE
- Journal :
- Royal Society Open Science, Royal Society Open Science, Vol 5, Iss 11 (2018)
- Accession number :
- edsair.doi.dedup.....14338bee09215449debb906d5a5983b3