For decades, scientists have been studying primate evolution, but building a complete picture of their history has proven to be a daunting task. A new study by researchers has successfully mapped 98% of all primate species using genetic data and published research, creating the most complete phylogenetic tree yet.
The primate order includes 462 species, ranging from massive gorillas to tiny mouse lemurs. However, until now, scientists lacked a comprehensive timeline that included them all. The previous largest collection of primates in the TimeTree database covered only 52% of the known species.
Researchers used a combination of untimed trees and DNA sequence data available on public databases like GenBank to create a new supertree of 455 primate species. This is the most complete view of primate evolution available today, covering 98% of all primates in the NCBI taxonomy.
The study found that major primate groups all had similar rates of speciation, and the biggest predictor of how many species a group contains was how long the group has existed, not its speed of evolution. This analysis is only possible with a complete and timed tree, as missing species or inaccurate dates would have skewed the results.
The success of this project suggests that scientists may be able to build similar trees for other major groups of life using available DNA sequences, published phylogenies, and smart computational tools. A complete timetree is no longer just a dream but becoming a reality, species by species, branch by branch.
Source: https://www.thebrighterside.news/post/researchers-reveal-a-complete-history-of-primate-evolution