Molecules support morphology: species status of South Indian populations of the widely distributed Hanuman langur

Ashalakshmi, NC and Nag, Chetan KS and Karanth, Praveen K (2015) Molecules support morphology: species status of South Indian populations of the widely distributed Hanuman langur. In: CONSERVATION GENETICS, 16 (1). pp. 43-58.

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Abstract

The taxonomy of the Hanuman langur (Semnopithecus spp.), a widely distributed Asian colobine monkey, has been in a flux for a long time due to much disagreement between various classification schemes. However, results from a recent field-based morphological study were consistent with Hill's (Ceylon J Sci 21:277-305, 1939) species level classification scheme. Here we tested the validity of S. hypoleucos and S. priam, the two South Indian species recognized by Hill. To this end, one mitochondrial and four nuclear markers were sequenced from over 72 non-invasive samples of Hanuman langurs and S. johnii collected from across India. The molecular data were subjected to various tree building methods. The nuclear data was also used in a Bayesian structure analysis and to determine the genealogical sorting index of each hypothesized species. Results from nuclear data suggest that the South Indian population of Hanuman langur consists of two units that correspond to the species recognized by Hill. However in the mitochondrial tree S. johnii and S. priam were polyphyletic probably due to retention of ancestral polymorphism and/or low levels of hybridization. Implications of these results on conservation of Hanuman langurs are also discussed.

Item Type:	Journal Article
Publication:	CONSERVATION GENETICS
Additional Information:	Copy right for this article belongs to the SPRINGER, VAN GODEWIJCKSTRAAT 30, 3311 GZ DORDRECHT, NETHERLANDS
Department/Centre:	Division of Biological Sciences > Centre for Ecological Sciences
Date Deposited:	23 Mar 2015 09:59
Last Modified:	23 Mar 2015 09:59
URI:	http://eprints.iisc.ac.in/id/eprint/51085

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