First DNA sequences from Asian cave bear fossils reveal deep divergences and complex phylogeographic patterns |
| |
Authors: | MICHAEL KNAPP,NADIN ROHLAND,JACOBO WEINSTOCK&dagger ,GENNADY BARYSHNIKOV&Dagger ,REI SHER§ ,DORIS NAGEL¶ ,GERNOT RABEDER¶ ,RON PINHASI,HEIKO A. SCHMIDT&dagger &dagger , MICHAEL HOFREITER |
| |
Affiliation: | Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology, Deutscher Platz 6, D-04103 Leipzig, Germany;, Ancient DNA and Evolution Group, Centre for Ancient Genetics, Niels Bohr Institute and Biological Institute, University of Copenhagen, Juliane Maries vej 30, DK-2100, Denmark and Department of Archaeology, University of Southampton, Avenue Campus Highfield Southampton SO17 1BF, UK;, Zoological Institute, Russian Academy of Sciences, Universitetskaya nab. 1, 199034 St Petersburg, Russia;, Severtsov Institute of Ecology and Evolution, Russian Academy of Sciences, Leninskiy Prospect 33, 119071 Moscow, Russia;, Department of Palaeontology, University of Vienna, Althanstr. 12, A-1090, Vienna, Austria;, Department of Archaeology, University College Cork, Cork, Ireland;, Center for Integrative Bioinformatics Vienna (CIBIV), Max F. Perutz Laboratories, Vienna, Austria, and University of Vienna and Medical University Vienna and University of Veterinary Medicine, Vienna, Austria |
| |
Abstract: | Until recently, cave bears were believed to have only inhabited Europe. However, recent morphological evidence suggests that cave bears' geographic range extended as far east as Transbaikalia, Eastern Siberia. These Asian cave bears were morphologically distinct from European cave bears. However, how they related to European lineages remains unclear, stressing the need to assess the phylogenetic and phylogeographic relationship between Asian cave bears and their European relatives. In this work, we address this issue using a 227 base-pair fragment of the mitochondrial control region obtained from nine fossil bone samples from eight sites from the Urals, Caucasus, Altai Mountains, Ukraine and Yana River region in Eastern Siberia. Results of the phylogenetic analyses indicate that (i) the cave bear from the Yana River is most closely related to cave bears from the Caucasus region; (ii) the Caucasus/Yana group of bears is genetically very distinct from both European cave bears and brown bears, suggesting that these bears could represent an independent species; and (iii) the Western European cave bear lineage reached at least temporarily to the Altai Mountains, 7000 km east of their known centre of distribution. These results suggest that the diversity of cave bears was greater than previously believed, and that they could survive in a much wider range of ecological conditions than previously assumed. They also agree with recent studies on other extinct and extant species, such as wolves, hyenas and steppe bison, which have also revealed higher genetic and ecological diversity in Pleistocene populations than previously known. |
| |
Keywords: | ancient DNA climate change extinction phylogeography Pleistocene speciation |
|
|