共查询到20条相似文献，搜索用时 0 毫秒
1.
Jakob Vinther Luis Porras Fletcher J. Young Graham E. Budd Gregory D. Edgecombe 《Palaeontology》2016,59(6):841-849
Omnidens is a large feeding apparatus composed of circlets of teeth, first documented from the early Cambrian of China. Originally interpreted as the oral cone of a radiodontan, it was later reinterpreted as the introvert of a priapulan. In both cases the Omnidens mouthparts underpinned estimates of gigantic (c. 2 m) body size. Recent evidence has been used to suggest that pharyngeal teeth and radially‐arranged oral plates in the stem‐group onychophoran Hallucigenia and the lower stem‐group euarthropod Jianshanopodia are homologous to structures of the introvert in priapulans and other scalidophorans, and are thus primitive characters for moulting animals (Ecdysozoa) as a whole. Here we show that the early Cambrian gilled lobopodian Pambdelurion whittingtoni from Sirius Passet, Greenland, possesses a mouth apparatus identical to Omnidens, being composed of the same three zones with detailed similarities of sclerites in each zone. An oral cone with rings of pharyngeal teeth, radial plates and outer scalid‐like plates are ecdysozoan characters retained in the euarthropod stem group. Omnidens from China probably belongs to an unrecognized Pambdelurion‐like animal rather than being part of a giant priapulan. 相似文献
2.
Manja Hethke Franz T. Fürsich Baoyu Jiang Bo Wang Patrick Chellouche Stephen C. Weeks 《Palaeontology》2019,62(3):483-513
The palaeoecology of Spinicaudata, the dominant group of benthic invertebrates in many pre‐Cenozoic freshwater environments, remains poorly understood. In analogy with extant taxa, it has been oversimplified and often reduced to shallow, temporary environments characterized by few trophic levels, implying ecological stasis from the Devonian to the Recent. We excavated 43 horizons of the Lower Cretaceous Yixian Formation (Anjiagou and Hengdaozi beds) to evaluate whether spinicaudatan ecology can be simplified to such an extent. Sedimentological evidence suggests general perennial conditions during the excavated lake interval. Based on 33 226 specimen counts, we identified three arthropod‐dominated macrobenthic associations and two assemblages. Response curves indicate that the spinicaudatan Eosestheria middendorfii was exceptionally tolerant to environmental gradients, followed, in decreasing order, by mayfly larvae, water boatmen and oligochaetes. Many spinicaudatan‐yielding layers represent death after reproductive senescence rather than mass‐mortality events. Spinicaudatan size varies significantly according to faunal association. A forward stepwise regression model suggests that growth responded to population density and diversity: lower densities and higher diversities triggered fast growth, and vice versa. The proposed strong density effect on carapace size has been corroborated by rearing experiments: as for E. middendorfii, natural log regression provided the best fit for the two extant species Eulimnadia texana and Eocyzicus argillaquus. Hence, E. middendorfii was a tolerant and morphologically variable species adapted to perennial waters and the frequent presence of higher trophic levels. Although there are rare records of extant taxa co‐occurring with fish, the described Early Cretaceous environment is commonly not inhabited by extant Spinicaudata. 相似文献
3.
4.
The Emu Bay Shale Lagerstätte (Cambrian Series 2, Stage 4) occurs on the north coast of Kangaroo Island, South Australia. Over 50 species are known from here, including trilobites and non‐biomineralized arthropods, palaeoscolecids, a lobopodian, a polychaete, vetulicolians, nectocaridids, hyoliths, brachiopods, sponges and chancelloriids. A new chelicerate, Wisangocaris barbarahardyae gen. et sp. nov., is described herein, based on a collection of some 270 specimens. It is up to 60 mm long, with the length of the cephalic shield comprising about 30% that of the exoskeleton. The cephalic margin has three pairs of bilaterally‐symmetrical small triangular spines. A pair of small eyes is placed well forwards on the ventral margin of the cephalic shield. The trunk comprises 11 segments that increase in length while narrowing posteriorly, each possibly bearing a pair of biramous appendages; the most posterior segment is almost square whereas the others are transversely elongated. The spatulate telson is proportionately longer than in taxa such as Sanctacaris, Utahcaris and Leanchoilia. Up to eight (?four pairs) of 3 mm‐long elements bearing alternating inward‐curving short and long spines beneath the cephalic shield are interpreted as basipodal gnathobases, part of a complex feeding apparatus. A well‐developed gut includes a stomach within the cephalic shield; it extends to the base of the telson. In a few specimens there are shell fragments within the gut, including those of the trilobite Estaingia bilobata (the most common species in the biota); these fragments have sharp margins and extend across the gut lumen. The species may have been a predator or a scavenger, ingesting material already broken up by a larger predator/scavenger. The morphology of this taxon shares many overall body features with Sanctacaris, and some with Sidneyia, particularly its gnathobasic complex. These chelicerate affinities are corroborated by phylogenetic analyses. 相似文献
5.
Julien Kimmig Brian R. Pratt 《Lethaia: An International Journal of Palaeontology and Stratigraphy》2016,49(2):150-169
The Middle Cambrian (series 3, Drumian, Bolaspidella Biozone) Ravens Throat River Lagerstätte in the Rockslide Formation of the Mackenzie Mountains, northwestern Canada, contains a Burgess Shale‐type biota of similar age to the Wheeler and Marjum formations of Utah. The Rockslide Formation is a unit of deep‐water, mixed carbonate and siliciclastic facies deposited in a slope setting on the present‐day northwestern margin of Laurentia. At the fossil‐bearing locality, the unit is about 175 m thick and the lower part onlaps a fault scarp cutting lower Cambrian sandstones. It consists of a succession of shale, laminated to thin‐bedded lime mudstone, debris‐flow breccias, minor calcareous sandstone, greenish‐coloured calcareous mudstone and dolomitic siltstone, overlain by shallow‐water dolostones of the Broken Skull Formation, which indicates an overall progradational sequence. Two ~1‐m‐thick units of greenish calcareous mudstone in the upper part exhibit soft‐bodied preservation, yielding a biota dominated by bivalved arthropods and macrophytic algae, along with hyoliths and trilobites. It represents a low‐diversity in situ community. Most of the fossils occur in the lower unit, and only the more robust components are preserved. Branching burrows are present under the carapaces of some arthropods, and common millimetre‐sized disruptions of laminae are interpreted as bioturbation. The fossiliferous planar‐laminated calcareous mudstone consists of chlorite, illite, quartz silt, calcite and dolomite and is an anomalous facies in the succession. It was deposited via hemipelagic fallout of a mixture of platform‐derived and terrestrial mud. Geochemical analysis and trace‐element proxies indicate oxic bottom waters that only occasionally might have become dysoxic. Productivity in the water column was dominated by cyanobacteria. Fragments of microbial mats are common as carbonaceous seams. Complete decay of soft tissues was interrupted due to the specific sediment composition, providing support for the role of clay minerals, possibly chlorite, in the taphonomic process. 相似文献
6.
Abstract: Three‐dimensional fragments of palaeoscolecid cuticle have been recovered from the Furongian (upper Cambrian) of Hunan, South China. Extraordinary preservation of the fossils shows exquisite surface details indicating a three‐layered structure of the cuticle. One new genus and two new species Dispinoscolex decorus gen. et sp. nov. and Schistoscolex hunanensis sp. nov. are described. The co‐occurrence of these palaeoscolecid remains with those of Markuelia hunanensis allowed us to test the hypothesis that Markuelia, known hitherto only from embryonic remains, is an embryonic palaeoscolecid. The comparative anatomy of Markuelia and the co‐occurring palaeoscolecids shows a number of distinctions, particularly in the structure of the tail; all similarities are scalidophoran or introvertan (cycloneuralian) symplesiomorphies. The available evidence does not support the interpretation of Markuelia as an embryonic palaeoscolecid. 相似文献
7.
Katie M. Strang Howard A. Armstrong David A. T. Harper João P. Trabucho‐Alexandre 《Lethaia: An International Journal of Palaeontology and Stratigraphy》2016,49(4):631-643
The Sirius Passet Lagerstätte (SP), Peary Land, North Greenland, occurs in black slates deposited at or just below storm wave base. It represents the earliest Cambrian microbial mat community with exceptional preservation, predating the Burgess Shale by 10 million years. Trilobites from the SP are preserved as complete, three‐dimensional, concave hyporelief external moulds and convex epirelief casts. External moulds are shown to consist of a thin veneer of authigenic silica. The casts are formed from silicified cyanobacterial mat material. Silicification in both cases occurred shortly after death within benthic cyanobacterial mats. Pore waters were alkali, silica‐saturated, high in ferric iron but low in oxygen and sulphate. Excess silica was likely derived from remobilized biogenic silica. The remarkable siliceous death mask preservation opens a new window on the environment and location of the Cambrian Explosion. This window closed with the appearance of abundant mat grazers later as the Cambrian Explosion intensified. 相似文献
8.
The morphology of two new bivalved arthropods, Loricicaris spinocaudatus gen. et sp. nov. and Nereocaris briggsi sp. nov. from the middle Cambrian (Series 3, Stage 5) Burgess Shale Formation (Collins Quarry locality on Mount Stephen, Yoho National Park, British Columbia, Canada), is described. The material was originally assigned to the genus Branchiocaris, but exhibits distinctive character combinations meriting its assignment to other taxa. Loricicaris spinocaudatus possesses an elongate and spinose abdomen comparable to the contemporaneous Perspicaris and Canadaspis, as well as chelate second head appendages and subtriangular exopods, comparable to Branchiocaris. Nereocaris briggsi possesses a laterally compressed carapace, elongate and delicate appendages and a medial eye located between a pair of lateral eyes on a rhomboidal eye stalk. Although undoubtedly congeneric with Nereocaris exilis from a slightly younger horizon of the Burgess Shale Formation, N. briggsi differs in overall proportions and segment number, warranting assignment to a new species. The newly described taxa were coded into an extensive cladistic analysis of 755 characters, and 312 extinct and extant panarthropods, including a variety of Cambrian bivalved arthropods from both the Burgess Shale and the Chengjiang Lagerstätten. Cambrian bivalved arthropods consistently resolved as a paraphyletic assemblage at the base of Arthropoda. Important innovations in arthropod history such as the specialization of the deutocerebral head appendages and a shift from a nekton‐benthic deposit feeding habit to a benthic scavenging/predatory habit, the symplesiomorphic feeding condition of Euarthropoda (crown‐group arthropods), were found to have occurred among basal bivalved arthropods. 相似文献
9.
Tao Dai Xingliang Zhang 《Lethaia: An International Journal of Palaeontology and Stratigraphy》2013,46(2):262-273
A detailed investigation of the morphology and ontogeny of the redlichioid trilobite Eoredlichia intermediata (Bulletin of the Geological Society of China, 3–4, 1940, 333) from the lower Cambrian Yu'anshan Member of the Heilinpu Formation, in Kunming, Yunnan Province, southwest China, is presented. The new material comprises a relatively complete ontogenetic series ranging from the early meraspid to the holaspid period, which reveals more details on morphological variation such as the appearance of bacculae in some holaspid specimens, contraction and disappearance of fixigenal spines, and macropleural spines of the first and second thoracic segments, which are all documented for the first time and can also be used as developmental markers defining ontogenetic phases. Two distinct morphotypes, possibly an expression of intraspecific variation or sexual dimorphism, are distinguished by the morphology of pleural spines of the second thoracic segment in meraspid degree 14 and holaspides. The trunk segmentation schedule of E. intermediata is also discussed and conforms to the protarthrous developmental mode. The distinction of the thoracic region into two portions can be observed during late meraspid and early holaspid periods, which might be considered as a reference for a better understanding on the relationship of tagmosis and growth segmentation among the Cambrian redlichiid trilobites. 相似文献
10.
Michał Zatoń Paweł Filipiak Michał Rakociński Wojciech Krawczyński 《Lethaia: An International Journal of Palaeontology and Stratigraphy》2014,47(3):352-364
A rich and diverse assemblage of arthropods and non‐biomineralized macroalgae occurs in the Upper Devonian marine deposits of the Holy Cross Mountains, central Poland. The phrase Kowala Lagerstätte is herein proposed for the fossil‐bearing deposits confined to the lower Famennian marly shale and limestone succession of the famous Kowala Quarry. The arthropod fauna is represented by phosphatic exoskeletal remains that still preserve the fine micro‐ornamentation of the cuticle. The fauna includes crustaceans and crustacean‐like taxa such as thylacocephalans, phyllocarids and angustidontids (in order of abundance). The non‐biomineralized algae, represented by at least three morphotypes, occur as carbonaceous compressions of their thalli while still preserving fine details including bundles of thin tubular projections. Although their general appearance is reminiscent of some Early Palaeozoic non‐calcified Dasycladales algae, their true taxonomic position is still uncertain. Lithology, as well as faunal and phytoplankton content point to a pelagic sedimentary environment. Impoverished benthic fauna, sediment lamination and geochemical signatures indicate at least periodic bottom‐water dysoxic to anoxic conditions. Thus, the preservation of arthropod cuticle and non‐calcified algae was primarily governed by oxygen‐deficient bottom waters that prevented bioturbation and scavenging during their burial. 相似文献
11.
Abstract: From thinly laminated marlstones of the Hesseltal Formation, representing the Late Cenomanian Oceanic Anoxic Event (OAE) 2, at Lengerich in the Teutoburger Wald (Westfalen, north‐west Germany), 17 sediment‐compacted baculitid ammonites with carbonised and partially phosphatised soft parts are recorded. Some preserve remains of the buccal mass, including jaws (occasionally articulated) and radulae, as well as of the cephalic cartilage, such as eye capsules. Such have not yet been recorded previously for the order Ammonoidea. In addition, originally unmineralised parts found preserved in these specimens include extensive portions of the digestive tract, the siphonal tube, false colour patterns (megastriae), as well as traces of what would appear to be the oviduct. At the same levels, patches with numerous isolated horny upper and rarer lower jaws as well as radulae occur; these may represent regurgitates or faeces of larger predators. The cephalopod remains described were deposited in an epicontinental setting, possibly at palaeodepths between 200 and 600 m. In this particular Late Cretaceous fossil Lagerstätte, upper jaws and anaptychi of ammonites rank among the commonest fossils. 相似文献
12.
The analysis of visual systems is a valuable method of assessing phylogenetic processes. As in the present animal world, we find simple and complex systems in the Lower Cambrian. One may detect “simple eyes” for example with an advanced design in lobopodians, while the existence of even more simple “simple eyes” is very probable but still to be proved. More complex systems are to be found. In Leanchoilia illecebrosa Hou, 1987 and Leanchoilia superlata Walcott, 1912 there are probable dorsal median eyes and a pair of fine, stalked ventral eyes. Both systems may contribute to phylogenetic and systematic discussions. These presumably movable stalked eyes may be regarded as an adaptation to a mobile lifestyle. They suggest that the physiologic principle of nystagmus to stabilise the visual world of an animal in motion was already realised in Leanchoilia, perhaps for the first time. To analyse the surface of the early eyes from the Lower Cambrian – not only of Leanchoilia, but of any other forms as well – the number, shape and other parameters of the lenses could lead to further knowledge regarding vision in early invertebrates. 相似文献
13.
Ninon Robin Giuseppe Marramà Ronald Vonk Jürgen Kriwet Giorgio Carnevale 《Palaeontology》2019,62(2):287-303
Isopod crustaceans have developed a variety of feeding strategies, which impact on their various life habits over time. Apart from morphological adaptations and the typical secondary deformations that some parasitic isopods inflict on their host's exoskeleton, traces of feeding behaviours involving isopods on their victim/food are seldom fossilized. Many of these rare occurrences consist of cases for which the degree of association between the isopods and their potential food source is unclear, or the interaction only very briefly explained (recently analysed cases excepted). There are two limiting problems in identifying the biological nature of fossilized associations: (1) direct associations of organisms preserved as ‘imprint’ (as opposed to inclusions in cherts or amber) are shaped by several taphonomic events difficult to identify (such as the time of death, burial and fossilization of the organism); (2) even in modern nature, differences within syn vivo interactions (like parasitism and micropredation) are poorly understood in marine systems. We report the occurrence of isopods associated with ancient chondrichthyans which also represent rare cases of the preservation of several fossil isopods on larger organisms. These organisms are adult electric rays of the genus ?Titanonarke Carvalho from the late Ypresian (Eocene) of the Monte Postale site, Bolca Lagerstätte, Italy. By examining: (1) the involved lineages of rays and isopods; (2) the taphonomy of the association; (3) its environmental context; and (4) biological/adaptive features; we identify this association as a selective case, either of ancient scavenging or of micropredation on specific electric rays by isopods. 相似文献
14.
The apostome family Colliniidae includes species that are adapted to the hemocoel/blood of various invertebrates, particularly crustaceans. To explore the phylogeny of these sanguicolous apostomes, Metacollinia luciensis was collected in August 2015 at Roscoff from the amphipod host, Orchestia gammarellus. Ciliates were Protargol stained and DNA was extracted. The small subunit rRNA (SSUrRNA) and cytochrome c oxidase subunit I (cox1) genes were amplified. Molecular phylogenetic analyses of the SSUrRNA genes unambiguously grouped M. luciensis with other apostomes with robust bootstrap support, but separated it distinctly from the pseudocolliniid clade. While there are only cox1 sequences for a subset of these apostomes, M. luciensis was also distant from the pseudocolliniids and separated from them by species of the exuviotrophic apostome Hyalophysa. These results confirm the distinctness of the families Colliniidae and Pseudocolliniidae. 相似文献
15.
Aleksandar Sekulic Winnie S. Liang Waibhav Tembe Tyler Izatt Semyon Kruglyak Jeffrey A. Kiefer Lori Cuyugan Victoria Zismann Christophe Legendre Mark R. Pittelkow John J. Gohmann Fernando R. De Castro Jeffrey Trent John Carpten David W. Craig Timothy K. McDaniel 《Molecular Genetics & Genomic Medicine》2015,3(2):130-136
Matching molecularly targeted therapies with cancer subtype‐specific gene mutations is revolutionizing oncology care. However, for rare cancers this approach is problematic due to the often poor understanding of the disease's natural history and phenotypic heterogeneity, making treatment of these cancers a particularly unmet medical need in clinical oncology. Advanced Sézary syndrome (SS), an aggressive, exceedingly rare variant of cutaneous T‐cell lymphoma (CTCL) is a prototypical example of a rare cancer. Through whole genome and RNA sequencing (RNA‐seq) of a SS patient's tumor we discovered a highly expressed gene fusion between CTLA4 (cytotoxic T lymphocyte antigen 4) and CD28 (cluster of differentiation 28), predicting a novel stimulatory molecule on the surface of tumor T cells. Treatment with the CTLA4 inhibitor ipilimumab resulted in a rapid clinical response. Our findings suggest a novel driver mechanism for SS, and cancer in general, and exemplify an emerging model of cancer treatment using exploratory genomic analysis to identify a personally targeted treatment option when conventional therapies are exhausted. 相似文献
16.
We describe a recently discovered trace fossil from a eurypterid Konservat‐Lagerstätte in the upper Silurian Tonoloway Formation of Pennsylvania, and formally describe contemporaneous traces from the Williamsville Formation Lagerstätte of Ontario. The traces from both localities are assigned here to Arcuites bertiensis igen. et isp. nov. Based on comparisons with previously described eurypterid trackways, neoichnological experiments, and the co‐occurrence with eurypterid remains, Arcuites is interpreted as having been made by the swimming leg (sixth prosomal appendage) of swimming juvenile to adult eurypteroid eurypterids, and represents the first unambiguous trace fossil evidence for eurypterid swimming behaviour. The morphology of Arcuites indicates that eurypteroid eurypterids swam using drag‐based rowing, whereby the animal propelled itself forward by moving its oar blade‐like swimming paddles in an in‐phase backstroke. Arcuites morphology also indicates that the eurypteroid swimming appendage had a greater degree of movement than was previously suggested, and a revised rowing model is proposed. Differences in the abundance of A. bertiensis in the Tonoloway and Williamsville formations suggest a bathymetric control on eurypterid swimming behaviour and trace production. The association of Arcuites with eurypterid body fossils in both units indicates that these Lagerstätten were autochthonous assemblages and provides additional evidence for eurypterid inhabitation of shallow subtidal marine environments in the late Silurian. 相似文献
17.
Vladimir E. Fedosov Alina V. Fedorova Alexander E. Fedosov Michael S. Ignatov 《Botanical journal of the Linnean Society. Linnean Society of London》2016,181(2):139-155
Pseudoditrichum mirabile, the only species of Pseudoditrichaceae, has been known for a long time from a single collection from the Canadian Arctic. Its systematic position remained enigmatic due to similarity in gametophyte structure with Ditrichaceae, a family that has simple peristomes, whereas the peristome in Pseudoditrichum is double. Due to this difference, Pseudoditrichum was classified in either Funariales or Bryales. A recent discovery of this species in the Anabar Plateau in northern Siberia has allowed its phylogenetic position to be tested based on plastid rps4 and rbcL and mitochondrial nad5 sequences. The results of this research reject the earlier hypotheses. Instead, the molecular analysis resolves Pseudoditrichum in a clade with Chrysoblastella chilensis (formerly Ditrichaceae) in the haplolepideous lineage. The peristome of Pseudoditrichum is of a previously unknown type with a fully developed exostome and hyaline endostome elements opposite the exostome teeth, based not on the 4:2:4 peristomial formula, but on 4:2:3. Double peristomes of the same type, albeit rather strongly reduced, occur in Catoscopium, Chrysoblastella, Distichium and Ditrichum flexicaule. The polyphyly of Ditrichaceae is confirmed by molecular phylogenetic analysis, and Ditrichum flexicaule and D. gracile are segregated into the new genus Flexitrichum and family Flexitrichaceae. An independent status of the recently resurrected family Distichiaceae is supported, and segregation of Chrysoblastella and Saelania into new monospecific families is proposed. 相似文献
18.
Ninon Robin Gilles Petit Sylvain Charbonnier 《Lethaia: An International Journal of Palaeontology and Stratigraphy》2015,48(4):463-473
Using microscopy and spectroscopy tools, we succeeded in identifying undescribed diminutive epibionts (as epibiotic bacterial colonies) both on exceptionally well‐preserved fossil shrimps and on extant taxa (N. Robin, S. Bernard, J. Miot, M.‐M. Blanc‐Valleron, S. Charbonnier & G. Petit, submitted). This study outlines the ecological parameters of this totally newly recognized interspecific association. To this aim, the systematics and environmental setting of fossil and modern decapod hosts are described; count of bacterial colonies is made to assess prevalence and intensity; scanning electron microscopy is used to illustrate colonial growth patterns; and histological sections of the extant colonies nested in cuticle are stained to determine their incidence on the carapace of their decapod hosts. Thus, the prevalent and intense association is found on decapods of the superfamily Penaeoidea Rafinesque‐Schmaltz 1815 occupying up to 2 cm2 of the entire carapace. The association is here observed in deep environments such as that of the Jurassic La Voulte‐sur‐Rhône Lagerstätte. A non‐random distribution of colonial growth patterns is determined; it illustrates a favourite access site along the ventral margin of the shrimp carapace. SEM images and stained sections reveal strong colony embedment within the cuticle, but also damage such as erasing of the cuticular layers. This bioeroding effect, possibly linked to a feeding benefit to the bacteria, brings this interspecific association that has existed, for at least 160 myr, near to parasitism. In addition to illustrating a rare case of interaction in Recent forms that could be described due to previous recognition in fossils, it constitutes a textbook example of the preservation of intimate interactions through geological time. 相似文献
19.
In the last 20 years, much taphonomic experimentation has focused on the interpretation of exceptionally preserved fossils. Decay experiments have been used to interpret the features preserved in soft‐bodied fossils and to determine the sequence of character loss and its impact on phylogenetic position. Experiments on the impact of microbial communities on decay and mineralization have started to illuminate the processes involved in the fossilization of soft tissues, including embryos. The role of decay in promoting authigenic mineralization has been used to investigate the formation of Ediacaran macrofossils and concretions. Maturation experiments have shown how the constituents of animals and plants are transformed over time to a macromolecular material that converges on a similar stable composition. Other maturation experiments have explained how structural colours in fossils are altered from the original. A major area requiring investigation is the role of specific types of microbes in decay and their impact on sediment and pore water chemistry, as well as the environmental controls that determine their presence and level of activity. Microbial activity has received less attention than other factors in attempts to explain why the occurrence and nature of exceptional preservation varies in time and space through the fossil record. 相似文献
20.
Jostein Gohli Erica H. Leder Eduardo Garcia‐del‐Rey Lars Erik Johannessen Arild Johnsen Terje Laskemoen Magnus Popp Jan T. Lifjeld 《Molecular ecology》2015,24(1):180-191
A common challenge in phylogenetic reconstruction is to find enough suitable genomic markers to reliably trace splitting events with short internodes. Here, we present phylogenetic analyses based on genomewide single‐nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) of an enigmatic avian radiation, the subspecies complex of Afrocanarian blue tits (Cyanistes teneriffae). The two sister species, the Eurasian blue tit (Cyanistes caeruleus) and the azure tit (Cyanistes cyanus), constituted the out‐group. We generated a large data set of SNPs for analysis of population structure and phylogeny. We also adapted our protocol to utilize degraded DNA from old museum skins from Libya. We found strong population structuring that largely confirmed subspecies monophyly and constructed a coalescent‐based phylogeny with full support at all major nodes. The results are consistent with a recent hypothesis that La Palma and Libya are relic populations of an ancient Afrocanarian blue tit, although a small data set for Libya could not resolve its position relative to La Palma. The birds on the eastern islands of Fuerteventura and Lanzarote are similar to those in Morocco. Together they constitute the sister group to the clade containing the other Canary Islands (except La Palma), in which El Hierro is sister to the three central islands. Hence, extant Canary Islands populations seem to originate from multiple independent colonization events. We also found population divergences in a key reproductive trait, viz. sperm length, which may constitute reproductive barriers between certain populations. We recommend a taxonomic revision of this polytypic species, where several subspecies should qualify for species rank. 相似文献