Interpreting Large-Scale Phylogenetic Models of Mammal Class Diversification Based on Mitochondrial Biomarkers

Abstract

This investigation reexamines mammal class diversification from a comparative phylogenetic perspective. By reconstructing a large-scale phylogeny based on mitochondrial biomarkers, I seek to reaffirm models of mammal class diversification among lineages that endured through the K-T event and onward. Two hundred thirty-five complete mtDNA sequences and sixty-two major taxa families within the class mammalia were represented in this study. My results will show that divergence among early eutherian mammals can be traced to a single modern group that shares homologous traits with the oldest eutherian fossil species ever found. Moreover, molecular clock analysis of phylogenetic reconstruction highlights the position taken by others rapid diversification between marsupial and placental mammals may have occurred much earlier than traditional models presume.