Genome-Based Sexing Provides Clues about Behavior and Social Structure in the Woolly Mammoth

Pečnerová, Patrícia; Díez-del-Molino, David; Dussex, Nicolás; Feuerborn, Tatiana R.; Seth, Johanna von; Plicht, Johannes van der; Nikolskiy, Pavel A.; Tikhonov, Alexei; Vartanyan, Sergey; Dalén, Love

doi:10.1016/j.cub.2017.09.064

Cited by 54 publications

(50 citation statements)

References 38 publications

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“…; Pečnerová et al . ). In order to avoid a bias in mapping due to the presence of nuclear mitochondrial DNA copies (numts), raw sequences were mapped against a merged nuclear‐mitochondrial reference consisting of a nuclear genome of the African elephant ( Loxodonta africana ) generated by the Broad Institute (LoxAfr4) and a mitochondrial genome of a known woolly mammoth (‘Krause’, DQ188829) (Krause et al .…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 97%

Testosterone in ancient hair from an extinct species

et al. 2018

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Testosterone is a key regulator in vertebrate development, physiology and behaviour. Whereas technology allows extraction of a wealth of genetic information from extant as well as extinct species, complementary information on steroid hormone levels may add a social, sexual and environmental context. Hair shafts have been previously used to sequence DNA from >50 000 14C years old Siberian woolly mammoths (Mammuthus primigenius). Hair‐testing has also been used to measure endogenous steroids in multiple extant species. Here we use small quantities of woolly mammoth hair samples to measure testosterone, and a genomics‐based approach to determine sex, in permafrost‐preserved mammoths dated to c. 10 000–60 000 14C years. Our validated method opens up exciting opportunities to measure multiple steroids in keratinized tissues from extinct populations of mammals. This may be specifically applied to investigating life histories, including the extinct Quaternary megafauna populations whose remains are preserved in the permafrost throughout the northern hemisphere.

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Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 97%

Testosterone in ancient hair from an extinct species

et al. 2018

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“…In contrast to most aDNA studies, which usually investigate species that went extinct thousands (e.g. mammoths 32 ) or hundreds of years ago (e.g. moas 33 ), we studied species that went extinct only a few decades ago.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Museum phylogenomics of extinctOryctesbeetles from the Mascarene Islands

Latorre

Herrmann

Paulsen³

et al. 2020

Preprint

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The evolution of island systems is characterized by processes that result in extreme morphological diversity, high endemism and high extinction rates. These dynamics can make phylogenetic reconstruction difficult, i.e. the extinct flightless Dodo from Mauritius was assigned to the family of doves only through DNA analysis of subfossils. Many insect species on islands have gone extinct through habitat loss, and face similar challenges to decipher their evolutionary history, however historical specimens have not yet been harnessed for phylogenomic reconstructions. Here, we employed historical museum specimens from the Mascarene Islands to generate the first whole-genome based phylogeny of three presumably extinct species of the rhinoceros beetle genus Oryctes . We compared their genomes with those of an extant Oryctes species from the island of Réunion, as well as a flightless Réunion-based species previously placed into the supposedly unrelated genus Marronus . We found that Marronus borbonicus belongs instead to the genus Oryctes and that the two Réunion-based species ( O. borbonicus and M. borbonicus ) are not sister taxa, suggesting two independent colonizations. The divergence time between them (<3Myr) overlaps with the volcanic formation of Réunion, likely indicating that M. borbonicus became flightless in situ . Our study showcases the power of genomes from insect museum specimens to address evolutionary questions in light of increasing extinction rates.

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“…This included a uracil‐DNA‐glycosylase treatment to remove uracils (Pečnerová et al . 2017a). The library was pooled in equimolar concentrations with 35 other samples, and the pool was sequenced on one Illumina HiSeq2500 lane at the Science for Life Laboratory in Stockholm.…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

‘Semi‐dwarf’ woolly mammoths from the East Siberian Sea coast, continental Russia

Kirillova¹,

Borisova

Чернова

et al. 2020

Boreas

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A pioneer comprehensive study of several diminutive last‐generation woolly mammoth teeth (M3) found on the coast of the East Siberian Sea between the mouths of the Alazeya and Malaya Kuropatoch'ya rivers was conducted. Two teeth belonged to one individual. These teeth have a similar lamellar frequency and enamel thickness as teeth of Mammuthus primigenius Blumenbach. The molar crowns from the lower Alazeya region are similar in size to those of the small Late Pleistocene–Holocene mammoths from Wrangel Island. However, the number of plates (17–19, excluding talons) is much lower than that in the teeth of typical Late Pleistocene M. primigenius (23–25). The age data of the examined teeth are beyond the limits of the 14C dating method (>45 000 years BP). Nevertheless, palaeobotanical data allow correlation of the enclosing sediments with the warm Kazantsevo Interglacial (Eemian, MIS 5e) and reconstruction of the average annual temperature, which was warmer than present‐day temperatures. These conditions are confirmed by the δ18O isotopes from the structurally bound carbonate in tooth enamel. The ancient landscape was wetter and more forested than modern landscapes. The diminution of M3 size and loss of posterior plates were a result of the overall decrease in body size, likely in response to landscape change and narrowing of resource space. Mammoths from the lower Alazeya region demonstrate a stage of significant size reduction, although the dwarfing was not finalized. Their teeth are the oldest amongst the small teeth found in west Beringia.

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Genome-Based Sexing Provides Clues about Behavior and Social Structure in the Woolly Mammoth

Cited by 54 publications

References 38 publications

Testosterone in ancient hair from an extinct species

Testosterone in ancient hair from an extinct species

Museum phylogenomics of extinctOryctesbeetles from the Mascarene Islands

‘Semi‐dwarf’ woolly mammoths from the East Siberian Sea coast, continental Russia

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