chabaudi and P. vinckei has been estimated to be between and while that of P. berghei and P. yoelii has been placed at and . A paper that included five unnamed lemur species suggested that P. ovale is more closely related to the lemur species than to the other primate ones. It also suggested that the lemur/P. ovale clade is a sister clade of the rodent species. While this is consistent with the placement of the lemur and rodent species in the subgenus Vinckeia it is inconsistent with the current placement of P. ovale within the subgenus Plasmodium. This paper also supports a basal divergence within the mammalian species into the subgenus Laverinia and the others. The subgenera Plasmodium and Vinckeia with the exception of P. ovale appear to be sister clades. Analysis of the apicoplast genes auggests that P. ovale is related to the rodent species. This is consistent with its relationship with the lemur species in the subgenus Vinckeia. Other analyses Examination of the protease gene (SERA) in 18 species has shown that the ancestral state had only a single gene and that gene duplications have occurred in the extant species. This paper confirms the groupings found elsewhere with an Asian clade. The rodent species seem to be more closely related to the Laverania subgenus than does the subgenus Plasmodium. A deletion mutation of ~100 base pairs including part of the LS1 rRNA gene is found in the sequences of two African species - P. gonderi and an undescribed parasite taken from a mandrill - and 2 Asian species - P. cynomolgi and P. simiovale. This mutation was not found in the other species examined (Leucocytozoon caulleryi, Leucocytozoon sabrazesi, P. bergei, P. chabaudi, P. falciparum, P. floridense, P. gallacium, P. fragile, P. juxtanucleare, P. knowelsi, P. mexicanum, P. reichenowi, P. relictum, P. simiae, P. vivax, P. yoelii and two unnamed Haemoproteus species.) These mutations are rare events and strongly suggests these species are related. Another paper suggests that after the mammalian-reptile/bird species split that the subgenus Laverina is basal among the mammal species. This study did not include mammalian infecting species other than primate and rodent species and for this reason Laverina may not be as basal as the study suggests. The remaining branching order is consistent with other analyses placing the rodent species as the first branch after the P. falciparum/P. reichenowi clade. It places P. malaria