Phylogenetic relationships among two species of golden monkey and three species of leaf monkey inferred from rDNA variation

Restriction maps of rDNA repeats of five species of Colobinae and three oul-group taxa, Hylobates leucogenys, Macaca mulatto, and Macaca irus, were constructed using 15 restrietion endonucleases and cloned 18S and 28S rRNA gene probes. The site variation between Rhinopithecus roxellana and Rhinopithecus bicti is comparable to that between Presbytis jrangoisi and Presbytis pkayrei, implying that R. bieti is a valid species rather than a subspecies of R. roxellana. Phylogenetic analysis on the 47 informative sites supports the case tor Rhinopithecus being an independent genus and closely related to Presbytis. Furthermore, branch lengths of the tree seem to support the hypothesis that the leaf monkeys share some ancestral traits as well as some automorphic characters.