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Estimation of Divergence Times for Major Lineages of Primate Species 

Galina V. Glazko Masatoshi Nei

Molecular Biology and Evolution, Volume 20, Issue 3, 1 March 2003, Pages 424–434,https://doi.org/10.1093/molbev/msg050

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01 March 2003

 

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Abstract

Although the phylogenetic relationships of major lineages of primate species are relatively well established, the times of divergence of these lineages as estimated by molecular data are still controversial. This controversy has been generated in part because different authors have used different types of molecular data, different statistical methods, and different calibration points. We have therefore EXAMINED the effects of these factors on the ESTIMATES of divergence times and reached the following conclusions: (1) It is advisable to concatenate many gene sequences and use a multigene gamma distance for estimating divergence times RATHER than using the individual gene approach. (2) When sequence data from many nuclear genes are available, protein sequences appear to give more robust estimates than DNA sequences. (3) Nuclear PROTEINS are generally more suitable than mitochondrial proteins for time estimation. (4) It is important first to construct a phylogenetic tree for a group of species using some outgroups and then estimate the branch lengths. (5) It appears to be better to use a few reliable calibration points rather than many unreliable ones. Considering all these factors and using two calibration points, we estimated that the human LINEAGE diverged from the chimpanzee, gorilla, orangutan, Old World monkey, and New World monkey lineages approximately 6 MYA (with a range of 5–7), 7 MYA (range, 6–8), 13 MYA (range, 12–15), 23 MYA (range, 21–25), and 33 MYA (range 32–36).

divergence times, concatenated distance, primate species, calibration points

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 Original Article

Introduction

In recent years a large number of authors have investigated the evolutionary relationships of primate species, using both molecular and paleontological data, and we now have a rough picture of the phylogenetic relationships of the major lineages of primate species (e.g., Goodman et al. 1998). However, the times of divergence of these lineages are still controversial (e.g., Horai et al. 1995; Takahata and Satta 1997; Arnason, Gullberg, and Janke 1998; Arnason et al. 2000; Cao et al. 2000; Chen and Li 2001). For example, the estimate of the time of divergence between humans and chimpanzees varies from 3.6 MYA (Easteal and Herbert 1997) to 13 MYA (Arnason, Gullberg, and Janke 1998).