Molecular phylogenetic and evolution of Malaysian primates with an emphasis on the phylogeography of Malaysia Bornean Proboscis Monkey (Nasalis larvatus)

• Main Author: Ho, Licia
• Format: Thesis
• Language: English
• Published: Universiti Malaysia Sarawak (UNIMAS) 2015
• Subjects: QL Zoology
• Online Access: http://ir.unimas.my/id/eprint/10932/1/Molecular...pdf; http://ir.unimas.my/id/eprint/10932/

This thesis comprised of two major studies including, 1) molecular phylogeny of Malaysian primates and 2) phylogeography of proboscis monkey (Nasalis larvatus) inferred from mitochondrial (mtDNA) gene. In Malaysia, there are a total of 21 described primate species, from five families and nine genera namely: Hylobates, Macaca, Nasalis, Nycticebus, Pongo, Presbytis, Cephalopachus, Trachypithecus, and Symphalangus. A total of 79 sequences with 1044 base pairs (bp) of mitochondrial NADH dehydrogenase subunit 2 (ND2) gene from 15 species of Malaysian Primates were used in the first study. Phylogenetic analyses based on NJ, MP, ML, and Bayesian Inference (BI) provided support for similar topology, confirming the monophyly for all the major primate clades, with five major clades identified. The divergence date analysis support for an origin of crown primates at 76.1 Mya during the Late Cretaceous period, whereby the crown haplorhines are estimated to have originated 69.5 Mya shortly after the occurrence of crown primates. The most recent common ancestor of the living catarrhines was estimated to have lived 29.2 Mya, whereas crown Cercopithecoidea and Hominoidea were estimated to lived approximately 21.7 Mya and 16.4 Mya, respectively.