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| Abstract Title:
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| Mitochondrial diversity of red colobus monkeys and the designation of conservation priorities for an endangered species group
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| Graduate Student Presenter:
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Nelson Ting
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| Name of the Author(s) and Affiliation(s):
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Nelson Ting, CUNY Graduate School and NYCEP IGERT
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Red colobus monkeys (Procolobus [Piliocolobus]), distributed in a fragmented manner across the rainforest belt, are among the most endangered primates in Africa. At least one form (Miss Waldron’s red colobus) has likely recently gone extinct, and several others are severely threatened by hunting and habitat destruction. Conservation plans for these animals have been hampered because their classification is one of the longest-standing problems in African primate taxonomy. Although resolution of the phylogenetic relationships among the numerous red colobus taxa would aid in classifying these animals and designating priorities for their protection, molecular work has not yet been performed on this group. Two mitochondrial datasets were collected to investigate red colobus monkey relationships and diversity. The first consists of nearly 4,000 base pairs, while the second is an 897 base pair subset of the first and targets museum specimens from taxa that can no longer be sampled in the wild. A mitochondrial gene tree with divergence dates was inferred from the first dataset using likelihood methods. This was then used as a constraint for the analysis of the second dataset so that the relationships of the museum sampled taxa could be better resolved. The results suggest that the modern red colobus radiation began by the Pliocene, showing that the diversification of these animals occurred much earlier than previously thought. Certain mitochondrial lineages in particular have long been isolated and are phylogenetically and/or biogeographically distinct. Conservation priorities are recommended to prevent the further loss of molecularly distinct red colobus lineages.
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