Abstract
The unusual mix of morphological traits displayed by extinct South American native ungulates (SANUs) confounded both Charles Darwin, who first discovered them, and Richard Owen, who tried to resolve their relationships. Here we report an almost complete mitochondrial genome for the litoptern Macrauchenia. Our dated phylogenetic tree places Macrauchenia as sister to Perissodactyla, but close to the radiation of major lineages within Laurasiatheria. This position is consistent with a divergence estimate of ∼66 Ma (95% credibility interval, 56.64–77.83 Ma) obtained for the split between Macrauchenia and other Panperissodactyla. Combined with their morphological distinctiveness, this evidence supports the positioning of Litopterna (possibly in company with other SANU groups) as a separate order within Laurasiatheria. We also show that, when using strict criteria, extinct taxa marked by deep divergence times and a lack of close living relatives may still be amenable to palaeogenomic analysis through iterative mapping against more distant relatives.
Highlights
To cite this version: Michael Westbury, Sina Baleka, Axel Barlow, Stefanie Hartmann, Johanna L.A
The unusual mix of morphological traits displayed by extinct South American native ungulates (SANUs) confounded both Charles Darwin, who first discovered them, and Richard Owen, who tried to resolve their relationships
We report the successful collection of mitogenomic data from a South American native ungulate
Summary
To cite this version: Michael Westbury, Sina Baleka, Axel Barlow, Stefanie Hartmann, Johanna L.A. Our dated phylogenetic tree places Macrauchenia as sister to Perissodactyla, but close to the radiation of major lineages within Laurasiatheria This position is consistent with a divergence estimate of B66 Ma (95% credibility interval, 56.64–77.83 Ma) obtained for the split between Macrauchenia and other Panperissodactyla. In theory, reconstructing an ancient genome de novo can be undertaken without relying on a close relative’s DNA for guidance, but due to contaminant DNA and low average fragment lengths, de novo assembly is generally considered not computationally feasible[6,7] These difficulties are compounded when targeted extinct species lived in tropical or subtropical regions, where aDNA preservation is characteristically poor7,8-as in the case of the enigmatic South American mammal Macrauchenia patachonica
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