A genomic timescale for placental mammal evolution

Science. 2023 Apr 28;380(6643):eabl8189. doi: 10.1126/science.abl8189. Epub 2023 Apr 28.

Abstract

The precise pattern and timing of speciation events that gave rise to all living placental mammals remain controversial. We provide a comprehensive phylogenetic analysis of genetic variation across an alignment of 241 placental mammal genome assemblies, addressing prior concerns regarding limited genomic sampling across species. We compared neutral genome-wide phylogenomic signals using concatenation and coalescent-based approaches, interrogated phylogenetic variation across chromosomes, and analyzed extensive catalogs of structural variants. Interordinal relationships exhibit relatively low rates of phylogenomic conflict across diverse datasets and analytical methods. Conversely, X-chromosome versus autosome conflicts characterize multiple independent clades that radiated during the Cenozoic. Genomic time trees reveal an accumulation of cladogenic events before and immediately after the Cretaceous-Paleogene (K-Pg) boundary, implying important roles for Cretaceous continental vicariance and the K-Pg extinction in the placental radiation.

MeSH terms

  • Animals
  • Biological Evolution
  • Eutheria* / classification
  • Eutheria* / genetics
  • Evolution, Molecular
  • Female
  • Fossils
  • Genetic Variation
  • Genomics / methods
  • Phylogeny
  • Time Factors