Mastodon mitochondrial genomes from American falls, Idaho

Abstract

Palaeogenetics offers a powerful method to examine the evolutionary relationships between and within taxonomic groups. With sufficient data these analyses can be extended to provide information about the palaeodemography of extinct species. Recent mitochondrial genomes from North American Mammut have highlighted the roles glacial/interglacial cycles had on their range dynamics, but were geographically limited to a subset of American mastodon populations. Here we expand upon previous mastodon ancient DNA research with two new mitochondrial genomes from the American Falls Reservoir in Idaho. Our phylogenetic analyses place mastodons from this region as close relatives of other interglacial mastodons from eastern Beringia and may represent a southward dispersal in response to glacial advance. We attempt to contextualize our findings within the currently known distribution of American and Pacific mastodons, and suggest that a much more comprehensive examination of morphological variation within Mammut is likely required.