#delphinidae
A Risso’s dolphin caught up in fishing line. Dolphin numbers in the Indian Ocean may have dropped by more than 80% in recent decades, with an estimated 4 million small cetaceans caught as “by-catch” in commercial tuna fishing nets since 1950, according to a study
Photograph: Andrew Sutton/Central Studio
(viaThe week in wildlife – in pictures | Environment | The Guardian)
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Phylogenomic Resolution of the Cetacean Tree of Life Using Target Sequence Capture
Cetaceans (whales, dolphins, and porpoises) have undergone the most dramatic morphological transformation of all mammals, having originated from a clade of terrestrial even-toed ungulates (like cattle, hippopotamuses, pigs, and more) over fifty million years ago. As a result of such an interesting and diverse evolutionary history, cetaceans have long been important and insightful subjects of numerous studies.
Until recently, the higher-level relationships between the cetacean families have taken precedence in research, leaving the systematics and lower-level relationships both under-explored and unresolved.
New research from Systematic Biologysought to rectify this gap in knowledge by combining data from >38,000 exons with existing sequences from 11 cetaceans and seven outgroup taxa, producing the first comprehensive comparative genomic dataset for cetaceans.
Enrich your knowledge further by exploring a more holistic insight of the genetic intricacies within cetacean families and discover new clarifications of the contentious relationships among particular species.
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Commerson’s dolphin is the lesser known black and white beauty of the dolphin world. Did you know there are almost 40 different species of dolphins?
Happy National Dolphin Day!
Image credit: Fernando Diaz
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