Molecular systematics of tamarins with emphasis on genus Tamarinus (Primates, Callitrichidae)

Abstract

The genus Saguinus comprises three principal clades that diverged in the Middle to Late Miocene. Their taxa are ecologically differentiated and allopatrically distributed. These clades were recently recognized as different genera, Saguinus, Tamarinus and Oedipomidas. In Tamarinus, the phylogenetic relationships among species/subspecies are poorly understood. Thus, in this study we present a comprehensive dated genomic phylogeny based on double digest restriction associated DNA for all known species and subspecies of Tamarinus. We also tested whether that Tamarinus imperator and Tamarinus subgrisescens are different species, as morphology‐based taxonomy, phenotypical divergences and mitochondrial genes recognized them as two different species. Additionally, we reconstructed time‐calibrated phylogenetics tree hypotheses of all extant species and subspecies of the genera Saguinus, Tamarinus and Oedipomidas. Our analysis robustly supported the phylogenetic hypothesis of all species/subspecies of the genus Tamarinus; strongly supported a divergence between the three clades, Saguinus, Oedipomidas and Tamarinus; and provided support for T. imperator and T. subgrisescens as distinct species. Therefore, we reiterate and ratify the division of Saguinus into three genera, supporting the taxonomic proposal for these genera.