PHYLOGENETIC-RELATIONSHIPS AMONG 2 SPECIES OF GOLDEN MONKEY AND 3 SPECIES OF LEAF MONKEY INFERRED FROM RDNA VARIATION

Restriction maps of rDNA repeats of five species of Colobinae and thre e outgroup taxa, Hylobates leucogenys, Macaca mulatta, and Macaca irus , were constructed using 15 restriction endonucleases and cloned 18S a nd 28S rRNA gene probes. The site variation between Rhinopithecus roxe llana and Rhinopithecus bieti is comparable to that between Presbytis francoisi and Presbytis phayrei, implying that R. bieti is a valid spe cies rather than a subspecies of R. roxellana. Phylogenetic analysis o n the 47 informative sites supports the case for Rhinopithecus being a n independent genus and closely related to Presbytis. Furthermore, bra nch lengths of the tree seem to support the hypothesis that the leaf m onkeys share some ancestral traits as well as some automorphic charact ers.