Pinniped Origins and the Rate of Evolution of Carnivore Albumins

Abstract

Sarich, Vincent M. (Dept. Anthropology, U. Calif., Berkeley 94720) 1969. Pinniped origins and the rate of evolution of carnivore albumins. Syst. Zool., 18:286–295. [Immunology; albumins; pinnipeds; phylogeny; evolution].—Data resulting from an immunological study of relationships among fissiped and pinniped albumins show that albumin evolution has occurred in a regular fashion in these taxa. This finding allows the conclusion that the pinnipeds share much more recent common ancestry with the canoids than either group does with the feloids. It is pointed out that it now appears possible to develop an internally consistent quantitative phylogeny for a group of species through the immunological study of a single protein found in that group.