Genome-wide ancestry and introgression in a Zambian baboon hybrid zone.

Hybridization in nature offers unique insights into the process of natural selection in incipient species and their hybrids. In order to evaluate the patterns and targets of selection, we examine a recently discovered baboon hybrid zone in the Kafue River Valley of Zambia, where Kinda baboons (Papio kindae) and grey-footed chacma baboons (P. ursinus griseipes) coexist with hybridization.

Genetic Diversity of the Ring-Tailed Lemur (Lemur catta) in South-Central Madagascar.

Madagascar's lemurs, now deemed the most endangered group of mammals, represent the highest primate conservation priority in the world. Due to anthropogenic disturbances, an estimated 10% of Malagasy forest cover remains. The endangered Lemur catta is endemic to the southern regions of Madagascar and now occupies primarily fragmented forest habitats.

The use of museum specimens with high-throughput DNA sequencers.

Natural history collections have long been used by morphologists, anatomists, and taxonomists to probe the evolutionary process and describe biological diversity. These biological archives also offer great opportunities for genetic research in taxonomy, conservation, systematics, and population biology. They allow assays of past populations, including those of extinct species, giving context to present patterns of genetic variation and direct measures of evolutionary processes.

Primate phylogenetic relationships and divergence dates inferred from complete mitochondrial genomes.

The origins and the divergence times of the most basal lineages within primates have been difficult to resolve mainly due to the incomplete sampling of early fossil taxa. The main source of contention is related to the discordance between molecular and fossil estimates: while there are no crown primate fossils older than 56Ma, most molecule-based estimates extend the origins of crown primates into the Cretaceous. Here we present a comprehensive mitogenomic study of primates.

Lesula: a new species of Cercopithecus monkey endemic to the Democratic Republic of Congo and implications for conservation of Congo's central basin.

In June 2007, a previously undescribed monkey known locally as "lesula" was found in the forests of the middle Lomami Basin in central Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC). We describe this new species as Cercopithecus lomamiensis sp. nov.

Panmixia postponed: ancestry-related assortative mating in contemporary human populations.

A study of two different populations reveals that in both the choice of a spouse is non-random not only in respect of broad ethnic group but also in regard to specific ancestries within that group. The cause of this surprising bias remains unclear.

Successive radiations, not stasis, in the South American primate fauna.

The earliest Neotropical primate fossils complete enough for taxonomic assessment, Dolichocebus, Tremacebus, and Chilecebus, date to approximately 20 Ma. These have been interpreted as either closely related to extant forms or as extinct stem lineages. The former hypothesis of morphological stasis requires most living platyrrhine genera to have diverged before 20 Ma.

Mitochondrial evidence for the hybrid origin of the kipunji, Rungwecebus kipunji (Primates: Papionini).

Common baboons (Papio), gelada baboons (Theropithecus) and baboon-mangabeys (Lophocebus) are closely related African papionin monkeys. In 2005, the species Lophocebus kipunji was described from relict montane and submontane forests in Tanzania, based upon a single specimen and observations of living animals. Its initial assignment to Lophocebus was based on its overall morphology, but subsequent genetic studies suggesting that it was sister taxon to common baboons (Papio) led to its generic separation, as Rungwecebus.