Data from: Stability of Cladistic Relationships between Cetacea and Higher-Level Artiodactyl Taxa

Over the past ten years, the phylogenetic relationships among higher level artiodactyl taxa have been examined with multiple data sets. Many of these data sets suggest that Artiodactyla (even-toed ungulates) is paraphyletic and that Cetacea (whales) represents a highly derived "artiodactyl" subgroup. In this report, phylogenetic relationships between Cetacea and artiodactyls are tested with a combination of 15 published data sets plus new DNA sequence data from two nuclear loci, interphotoreceptor retinoid binding protein (IRBP) and von Willebrand factor (vWF). The addition of the IRBP and vWF character sets disrupts none of the relationships supported by recent cladistic analyses of the other 15 data sets. Simultaneous analyses support three critical clades: (Cetacea + Hippopotamidae), (Cetacea + Hippopotamidae + Ruminantia), and (Cetacea + Hippopotamidae + Ruminantia + Suina). Perturbations of the combined matrix show that the above clades are stable to a variety of disturbances. A chronicle of phylogenetic results over the past three years suggests that cladistic relationships between Cetacea and artiodactyls have been stable to increased taxonomic sampling and to the addition of over 1,400 informative characters from 15 data sets.近十年来，学界已借助多组数据集对高等偶蹄目（Artiodactyla）类群的系统发育关系开展了诸多探讨。其中多数数据集的分析结果显示，偶蹄目（又称偶蹄类）为并系群，而鲸目（Cetacea）属于一类高度特化的“偶蹄类”演化亚群。本研究结合15组已发表的数据集，以及两个核基因座——光感受器间类视黄醇结合蛋白（interphotoreceptor retinoid binding protein, IRBP）与血管性血友病因子（von Willebrand factor, vWF）的全新DNA序列数据，对鲸目与偶蹄类之间的系统发育关系进行了检验。新增的IRBP与vWF特征集并未破坏此前基于其余15组数据集的支序分类学分析所支持的各类演化关系。联合分析共支持三个关键演化支：（鲸目+河马科（Hippopotamidae））、（鲸目+河马科+反刍亚目（Ruminantia））以及（鲸目+河马科+反刍亚目+猪次目（Suina））。对联合分析矩阵的扰动实验表明，上述演化支在多种干扰条件下均保持稳定。过往三年间的系统发育研究历程显示，鲸目与偶蹄类之间的支序分类关系，在分类群采样量增加以及15组数据集新增的1400余个信息特征后，始终保持稳定。