Evidence for a recent origin of penguins

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TitleEvidence for a recent origin of penguinsAbstractPenguins are a remarkable group of birds, with the 18 extant species living in diverse climatic zones from the tropics to Antarctica. The timing of the origin of these extant penguins remains controversial. Previous studies based on DNA sequences and fossil records have suggested widely differing times for the origin of the group. This has given rise to widely differing biogeographic narratives about their evolution. To resolve this problem, we sequenced five introns from 11 species representing all genera of living penguins. Using these data and other available DNA sequences, together with the ages of multiple penguin fossils to calibrate the molecular clock, we estimated the age of the most recent common ancestor of extant penguins to be 20.4 Myr (17.0-23.8 Myr). This time is half of the previous estimates based on molecular sequence data. Our results suggest that most of the major groups of extant penguins diverged 11-16 Ma. This overlaps with the sharp decline in Antarctic temperatures that began approximately 12 Ma, suggesting a possible relationship between climate change and penguin evolution. Â© 2013 The Author(s) Published by the Royal Society.

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1st AuthorSubramanian, S. AuthorSubramanian, S.Beans-Picón, G.Swaminathan, S.Millar, C.Lambert, D.Year2013JournalBiology LettersVolume9Number6DOI10.1098/rsbl.2013.0748URLhttps://www.scopus.com/inward/recor.....a121dfe6b39885dc6923c0059PublisherRoyal SocietyKeywordsbiogeographyclimate variationcommon ancestrydivergencefossil recordgenetic analysisphylogeneticsseabird, animalAntarcticaarticleBayes theoremcalibrationclimate changeDNA sequenceevolutionfossilgeneticsintronpenguinpenguin evolutionphylogenyphysiologypolymerase chain reactionrate of evolutionspecies differencetime, climate changepenguin evolutionrate of evolution, AnimalsAntarctic RegionsBayes TheoremBiological EvolutionCalibrationClimate ChangeFossilsIntronsPhylogenyPolymerase Chain ReactionSequence Analysis, DNASpecies SpecificitySpheniscidaeTime FactorsAuthor KeywordsClimate changePenguin evolutionRate of evolution

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CitationSubramanian, S., Beans-PicÃ³n, G., Swaminathan, S., Millar, C. and Lambert, D. (2013). Evidence for a recent origin of penguins. Biology Letters, 9(6)