驼鹿的进化和分类研究进展

Evolution of Alces and Progress in Taxonomy Research

驼鹿在距今约27万年的中更新世末期Riss冰期时代出现在欧洲,在距今约1万年的晚Wisconsinian时期出现在阿拉斯加,伴随着大动物区系的灭绝而出现在北美洲南部,并最终生存了下来,进而不断地进化,形成了现有的七个亚种。在近几十年的研究过程中,学术界开始更加关注分布在中国、蒙古和俄罗斯的远东驼鹿,成为研究的新热点。远东驼鹿面临着严重的狩猎威胁,存在着灭绝危险;更重要的是,这一亚种在驼鹿的进化和分类地位问题上,存在着相当大的学术争议。在以前的研究中,对于远东驼鹿的进化与分类地位的研究,主要基于形态学特征、地理分布特征以及古生物学研究来推断的,缺乏最有力的证据。但随着细胞生物学和分子生物学的发展,给驼鹿的进化和分类研究提供了更大的空间。

Alces evolved from its small ancestor in Europe in Riss epoch of the late stage of middle Pleistocene about 270 000 years ago, then about 10 000 years ago, in late Wisconsinian stage, it appeared in Alaska and with the extinction of megafauna, , Alces distributed to the southern part of America, survived there and evolved into the present seven subspecies. However, in recent years, the Far East mouse （A. a. cameloides） in China, Mongolia and Russia attracted more attention and became the hot spot of researches. The reason was that the Far East mouse was facing serious threat of hunting, thus in the danger of extinction. In researches in the past, different opinions existed in its evolution and taxonomy, and researches mainly based on morphology, geographical distribution and paleaontology were not enough to settle the dispute. Recent advances in cytology and molecular biology provided new theories and techniques in investigation of this problem.