Chromosomes of the siberian snow sheep, Ovis nivicola, and implications concerning the origin of amphiberingian wild sheep (subgenus Pachyceros) |
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Authors: | KV Korobitsyna CF Nadler NN Vorontsov RS Hoffmann |
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Institution: | 1. Institute of Biology and Pedology, Far East Scientific Center, Academy of Sciences of the USSR, Vladivostok 690022 USSR.;2. Department of Medicine, Northwestern University Medical School, Chicago, Illinois 60611 USA.;3. Museum of Natural History, Lawrence, Kansas 66045 USA.;4. Department of Systematics and Ecology, University of Kansas, Lawrence, Kansas 66045 USA. |
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Abstract: | The chromosomes of Ovis nivicola, described for the first time, exhibit 2n = 52, the lowest diploid number to be reported for wild sheep and goats. The new chromosomal data, together with a review of the fossil history of the genus, lead us to conclude that the bighorned wild sheep (subgenus Pachyceros) evolved their distinctive characteristics while isolated in the ice-free Beringian refugium, and then migrated southward into western North America when the glacial barriers melted, as first suggested by Cowan (1940). |
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