The collared pika (Ochotona collaris; pictured) of Alaska and Canada is descended from its more southerly relative the American pika (Ochotona princeps), and not vice versa as previously thought.
Data on the two North American pikas have not allowed researchers to adjudicate between competing hypotheses on the animals' origins. So Kurt Galbreath of Cornell University in Ithaca, New York, and Eric Hoberg of the Animal Parasitic Diseases Laboratory in Beltsville, Maryland, studied parasites common to both pikas to determine the mammals' ancestry and colonization route.
The duo used genetic sequences to create family trees, which show that the parasites dispersed from south to north. Because they must have done so in their hosts, this means that the pikas moved likewise.
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Picking out the pika's origins. Nature 474, 422 (2011). https://doi.org/10.1038/474422a
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/474422a
