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Publication Details
AFRICAN RESEARCH NEXUS
SHINING A SPOTLIGHT ON AFRICAN RESEARCH
general
Is the guinea-pig a rodent?
Nature, Volume 351, No. 6328, Year 1991
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Description
THE guinea-pig (Caviaporcellus), traditionally classified as a New World hystricomorph rodent, often shows anomalous morphological and molecular features in comparison with other eutherian mammals1-14. For example, its insulin differs from that of other mammals in anabolic and growth-promoting activities and in its capability to form hexamers5,6. Indeed, the literature about the molecular evolution of guinea-pigs abounds in references to 'convergent evolution', 'extremely rapid rates of substitution', and 'unique evolutionary mechanisms'. These claims are based on the assumption that the guinea-pig is a rodent. Our phylogenetic analyses of amino-acid sequence data, however, imply that the guinea-pig diverged before the separation of the primates and the artiodactyls from the myomorph rodents (rats and mice). If true, then the myomorphs and the caviomorphs do not constitute a natural clade, and the Caviomorpha (or the Histricomorpha) should be elevated in taxonomical rank and regarded as a separate mammalian order distinct from the Rodentia. If, as suggested by recent data15,16, the myomorphs branched off before the divergence among the carnivores, lagomorphs, artiodactyls and primates, then the new order would represent an early divergence in eutherian radiation. © 1991 Nature Publishing Group.
Authors & Co-Authors
Graur, Dan
Israel, Tel Aviv-yafo
Tel Aviv University
United States, Houston
University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston
Hide, Winston A.
United States, Houston
University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston
United States, Houston
Baylor College of Medicine
Li, Wenhsiung
United States, Houston
University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston
Statistics
Citations: 280
Authors: 3
Affiliations: 3
Identifiers
Doi:
10.1038/351649a0
ISSN:
00280836
Research Areas
Cancer
Study Locations
Guinea