Y chromosome introgression between deeply divergent primate species.

Hybridization and introgression are widespread in nature, with important implications for adaptation and speciation. Since heterogametic hybrids often have lower fitness than homogametic individuals, a phenomenon known as Haldane's rule, loci inherited strictly through the heterogametic sex rarely introgress. We focus on the Y-chromosomal history of guenons, African primates that hybridized extensively in the past.

Complex Evolutionary History With Extensive Ancestral Gene Flow in an African Primate Radiation.

Understanding the drivers of speciation is fundamental in evolutionary biology, and recent studies highlight hybridization as an important evolutionary force. Using whole-genome sequencing data from 22 species of guenons (tribe Cercopithecini), one of the world's largest primate radiations, we show that rampant gene flow characterizes their evolutionary history and identify ancient hybridization across deeply divergent lineages that differ in ecology, morphology, and karyotypes. Some hybridization events resulted in mitochondrial introgression between distant lineages, likely facilitated by cointrogression of coadapted nuclear variants.

Camera Traps Uncover the Behavioral Ecology of an Endemic, Cryptic Monkey Species in the Congo Basin.

Guenons are the most diverse clade of African primates, and many species living within the core of the Congo Basin rainforest are still understudied. The recently described guenon species, , known as lesula, is a cryptic, semi-terrestrial species endemic to the central Congo Basin in the Democratic Republic of the Congo. The recent IUCN Red List Assessment recognizes lesula's risk of extinction in the wild as Vulnerable.

The history, taxonomy, and geographic origins of an introduced African monkey in the southeastern United States.

The origins and taxonomy of the introduced vervet monkey population in Dania Beach, Florida has been unconfirmed due to a lack of documentation and genetic research. Our goal was to determine the introduction history, species identification, and geographic origins of the monkeys. Through interviews, historical archives, and popular media, we traced the monkeys to an escape from the Dania Chimpanzee Farm in 1948.

A natural history of Chlorocebus dryas from camera traps in Lomami National Park and its buffer zone, Democratic Republic of the Congo, with notes on the species status of Cercopithecus salongo.

The natural history and taxonomic status of two central African primates, Cercopithecus dryas and Cercopithecus salongo have long been in question. Recent studies confirmed that C. dryas is a basal member of the savanna monkey clade, and that it prefers dense undergrowth in lowland rainforest.

Skeletal morphology of the lesula (Cercopithecus lomamiensis) and the evolution of guenon locomotor behavior.

Objectives: The guenons (tribe Cercopithecini) are a diverse and primarily arboreal radiation of Old World monkeys from Africa. However, preliminary behavioral observations of the lesula (Cercopithecus lomamiensis), a little-known guenon species described in 2012, report it spending substantial amounts of time on the ground. New specimens allow us to present the first description of lesula postcranial morphology and apply a comparative functional morphology approach to supplement our knowledge of its locomotor behavior.

The Genome of the Endangered Dryas Monkey Provides New Insights into the Evolutionary History of the Vervets.

Genomic data can be a powerful tool for inferring ecology, behavior, and conservation needs of highly elusive species, particularly, when other sources of information are hard to come by. Here, we focus on the Dryas monkey (Cercopithecus dryas), an endangered primate endemic to the Congo Basin with cryptic behavior and possibly <250 remaining adult individuals. Using whole-genome sequencing data, we show that the Dryas monkey represents a sister lineage to the vervets (Chlorocebus sp.

Bat Predation by Cercopithecus Monkeys: Implications for Zoonotic Disease Transmission.

The relationship between bats and primates, which may contribute to zoonotic disease transmission, is poorly documented. We provide the first behavioral accounts of predation on bats by Cercopithecus monkeys, both of which are known to harbor zoonotic disease. We witnessed 13 bat predation events over 6.

The efficacy of sex-chromosomal markers in studies of Cercopithecus hybridization: Discovery of a captive hybrid and applications in wild populations.

We demonstrate the utility of previously described molecular methods for identifying hybrid Cercopithecus monkeys. Using phylogenetic analyses and DNA sequence comparisons at X-chromosomal and Y-chromosomal loci, we have identified a hybrid animal in the Cheyenne Mountain Zoo (USA)--an identification that was not known a priori but was later confirmed by review of zoo records. The molecular techniques employed here are of great use to studies of the genus Cercopithecus because, unlike most mammals, these monkeys frequently form polyspecific associations, and recent deforestation is likely to have driven otherwise low-level hybridization to higher frequencies which may reduce the fitness of threatened populations.

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.

X-chromosomal window into the evolutionary history of the guenons (Primates: Cercopithecini).

Molecular studies of the guenons suggest that the arboreal Cercopithecus species form a monophyletic group within the tribe Cercopithecini. However, the evolutionary relationships among these arboreal congeners remain poorly resolved. The present work marks the first attempt to reconstruct the history of this group through the phylogenetic analysis of long nuclear sequences.