Molecular phylogenetic information on the identity of the closest living relative(s) of land vertebrates.

Abstract

The phylogenetic position of tetrapods relative to the other two living sarcopterygian lineages (lungfishes and the coelacanth) has been subject to debate for many decades, yet remains unresolved. There are three possible alternatives for the phylogenetic relationships among these three living lineages of sarcopterygians, i.e., lungfish as living sister group of tetrapods, the coelacanth as closest living relative of tetrapods, and lungfish and coelacanth equally closely related to tetrapods. To resolve this important evolutionary question several molecular data sets have been collected in recent years, the largest being the almost complete 28S rRNA gene sequences (about 3500 bp) and the complete mitochondrial genomes of the coelacanth and a lungfish (about 16,500 bp each). Phylogenetic analyses of several molecular data sets had not provided unequivocal support for any of the three hypotheses. However, a lungfish + tetrapod or a lungfish + coelacanth clade were predominantly favored over a coelacanth + tetrapod grouping when the entire mitochondrial genomes alone or in combination with the nuclear 28S rRNA gene data were analyzed with maximum parsimony, neighbor-joining, and maximum likelihood phylogenetic methods. Also, current paleontological and morphological data seem to concur with these molecular results. Therefore the currently available molecular data seems to rule out a coelacanth + tetrapod relationship, the traditional textbook hypothesis. These tentative molecular phylogenetic results point to the inherent difficulty in resolving relationships among lineages which apparently originated in rapid succession during the Devonian.