Flynn J J, Nedbal M A, Dragoo J W, Honeycutt R L
Department of Geology, The Field Museum, Roosevelt Road at Lake Shore Drive, Chicago, Illinois 60605, USA.
Mol Phylogenet Evol. 2000 Nov;17(2):190-9. doi: 10.1006/mpev.2000.0819.
The evolutionary history of the red panda (Ailurus fulgens) plays a pivotal role in the higher-level phylogeny of the "bear-like" arctoid carnivoran mammals. Characters from morphology and molecules have provided inconsistent evidence for placement of the red panda. Whereas it certainly is an arctoid, there has been major controversy about whether it should be placed with the bears (ursids), ursids plus pinnipeds (seals, sea lions, walrus), raccoons (procyonids), musteloids (raccoons plus weasels, skunks, otters, and badgers [mustelids]), or as a monotypic lineage of uncertain phylogenetic affinities. Nucleotide sequence data from three mitochondrial genes and one nuclear intron were analyzed, with more complete taxonomic sampling of relevant taxa (arctoids) than previously available in analyses of primary molecular data, to clarify the phylogenetic relationships of the red panda to other arctoid carnivorans. This study provides detailed phylogenetic analyses (both parsimony and maximum-likelihood) of primary character data for arctoid carnivorans, including bootstrap and decay indices for all arctoid nodes, and three statistical tests of alternative phylogenetic hypotheses for the placement of the red panda. Combined phylogenetic analyses reject the hypotheses that the red panda is most closely related to the bears (ursids) or to the raccoons (procyonids). Rather, evidence from nucleotide sequences strongly support placement of the red panda within a broad Musteloidea (sensu lato) clade, including three major lineages (the red panda, the skunks [mephitids], and a clearly monophyletic clade of procyonids plus mustelids [sensu stricto, excluding skunks]). Within the Musteloidea, interrelationships of the three major lineages are unclear and probably are best considered an unresolved trichotomy. These data provide compelling evidence for the relationships of the red panda and demonstrate that small taxonomic sample sizes can result in misleading or possibly erroneous (based on prior modeling, as well as conflict between the results of our analyses of less and more complete data sets) conclusions about phylogenetic relationships and taxonomy.
小熊猫（Ailurus fulgens）的进化史在“熊样”熊型食肉目哺乳动物的高级系统发育中起着关键作用。形态学和分子学特征为小熊猫的分类提供了不一致的证据。虽然它肯定是熊型动物，但关于它是否应与熊（熊科）、熊科加鳍足类动物（海豹、海狮、海象）、浣熊（浣熊科）、鼬型动物（浣熊加鼬、臭鼬、水獭和獾[鼬科]）归为一类，或者作为一个系统发育亲缘关系不确定的单型谱系，一直存在重大争议。分析了来自三个线粒体基因和一个核内含子的核苷酸序列数据，对相关类群（熊型动物）进行了比以往初级分子数据分析中更完整的分类采样，以阐明小熊猫与其他熊型食肉动物之间的系统发育关系。本研究提供了熊型食肉动物主要特征数据的详细系统发育分析（简约法和最大似然法），包括所有熊型动物节点的自展和衰减指数，以及对小熊猫分类的替代系统发育假设的三项统计检验。综合系统发育分析拒绝了小熊猫与熊（熊科）或浣熊（浣熊科）关系最密切的假设。相反，核苷酸序列的证据有力地支持将小熊猫置于一个广义的鼬型总科（sensu lato）分支内，包括三个主要谱系（小熊猫、臭鼬[臭鼬科]，以及一个明显单系的浣熊科加鼬科分支[sensu stricto，不包括臭鼬]）。在鼬型总科内，三个主要谱系之间的相互关系尚不清楚，可能最好视为一个未解决的三分法。这些数据为小熊猫的关系提供了令人信服的证据，并表明小的分类样本量可能导致关于系统发育关系和分类学的误导性或可能错误的（基于先前的模型，以及我们对较少和较完整数据集的分析结果之间的冲突）结论。
