Data from: Next-generation museomics disentangles one of the largest primate radiations

Guenons (tribe Cercopithecini) are one of the most diverse groups of
primates. They occupy all of sub-Saharan Africa and show great variation
in ecology, behavior, and morphology. This variation led to the
description of over 60 species and subspecies. Here, using next-generation
DNA sequencing (NGS) in combination with targeted DNA capture, we
sequenced 92 mitochondrial genomes from museum-preserved specimens as old
as 117 years. We infer evolutionary relationships and estimate divergence
times of almost all guenon taxa based on mitochondrial genome sequences.
Using this phylogenetic framework, we infer divergence dates and
reconstruct ancestral geographic ranges. We conclude that the
extraordinary radiation of guenons has been a complex process driven by,
among other factors, localized fluctuations of African forest cover. We
find incongruences between phylogenetic trees reconstructed from
mitochondrial and nuclear DNA sequences, which can be explained by either
incomplete lineage sorting or hybridization. Furthermore, having produced
the largest mitochondrial DNA dataset from museum specimens, we document
how NGS technologies can 'unlock' museum collections, thereby
helping to unravel the tree-of-life.