Dear colleagues We are pleased to announce a new article: Cheng-Hsiu Tsai and R. Ewan Fordyce 2014 Juvenile morphology in baleen whale phylogeny. Naturwissenschaften (online first) doi: 10.1007/s00114-014-1216-9
Abstract Phylogenetic reconstructions are sensitive to the influence of ontogeny on morphology. Here, we use foetal/ neonatal specimens of known species of living baleen whales (Cetacea: Mysticeti) to show how juvenile morphology of extant species affects phylogenetic placement of the species. In one clade (sei whale, Balaenopteridae), the juvenile is distant from the usual phylogenetic position of adults, but in the other clade (pygmy right whale, Cetotheriidae), the juvenile is close to the adult. Different heterochronic processes at work in the studied species have different influences on juvenile morphology and on phylogenetic placement. This study helps to understand the relationship between evolutionary processes and phylogenetic patterns in baleen whale evolution and, more in general, between phylogeny and ontogeny; likewise, this study provides a proxy how to interpret the phylogeny when fossils that are immature individuals are included. Juvenile individuals in the peramorphic acceleration clades would produce misleading phylogenies, whereas juvenile individuals in the paedomorphic neoteny clades should still provide reliable phylogenetic signals. Keywords Evolutionary process . Phylogenetic pattern . Ontogeny . Mysticeti . Heterochrony Available at http://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s00114-014-1216-9 or email Tsai: [email protected]<mailto:[email protected]>; [email protected]<mailto:[email protected]>; Ewan: [email protected]<mailto:[email protected]> Regards and all the best, Tsai Cheng-Hsiu Tsai （蔡政修) PhD student, Department of Geology, University of Otago 360 Leith Walk (Courier) or PO Box 56 (Postal) Dunedin 9054, New Zealand Email: [email protected]<mailto:[email protected]>; [email protected]<mailto:[email protected]>
_______________________________________________ MARMAM mailing list [email protected] https://lists.uvic.ca/mailman/listinfo/marmam
