Mitochondrial DNA diversity and evolution of the Pleistocene cave bear complex

Autor(en): Mathias Stiller, Martyna Molak, Stefan Prost, Gernot Rabeder, Gennady Baryshnikov, Wilfried Rosendahl, Susanne Münzel, Hervé Bocherens, Aurora Grandal-d'Anglade, Brigitte Hilpert, Mietje Germonpré, Oleh Stasyk, Ron Pinhasi, Andrea Tintori, Nadin Rohland, Elmira Mohandesan, Simon Y.W. Ho, Michael Hofreiter, Michael Knapp
Abstrakt: Cave bears are among the most well known extinct Pleistocene mammals. Their biogeography and taxonomy, along with the factors that led to their extinction, have been subject to long-standing controversy. Here, we reconstruct the phylogeography as well as the temporal and spatial population dynamics of cave bears across their range using mitochondrial DNA control region sequences from 77 published as well as 65 new cave bear samples, Our analyses reveal a dramatic loss of genetic diversity in cave bear populations after 30,000 years before present and provide evidence for a range decline from east to west towards the onset of the last glacial maximum. Our results also suggest that the three major haplogroups within cave bears, which may correspond to distinct species, were previously more widespread, with relict populations in remote and alpine areas still harbouring haplotypes that have disappeared from most of their previous range. Applying a phylogenetic dating approach, we estimated the age of the oldest of our samples, originating from the Yana River region in north-eastern Siberia, to be around 178,000 years, which confirms a previous estimate of a Middle Pleistocene age based on its stratigraphic position. Our results extend our knowledge about the evolutionary history of cave bears, but they also show that to unravel the complexities of cave bear evolution future ancient DNA studies on this Pleistocene species will need to go beyond short mitochondrial DNA fragments, including full mitochondrial genomes as well as nuclear DNA sequences.
Organisation(en): Institut für Paläontologie
Externe Organisation(en): University of California, Santa Cruz, Max-Planck-Institut für evolutionäre Anthropologie, The University of Sydney, University of Otago, University of California, Berkeley, Russian Academy of Sciences, Reiss-Engelhorn-Museen, Eberhard Karls Universität Tübingen, Universidade da Coruña, Friedrich-Alexander-Universität Erlangen-Nürnberg (FAU), Royal Belgian Institute of Natural Sciences, National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine (NASU), University College Dublin, Università degli Studi di Milano-Bicocca, Harvard University, Veterinärmedizinische Universität Wien, University of York, Bangor University
Journal: Quaternary International
Band: 339-340
Seiten: 224-231
Anzahl der Seiten: 8
ISSN: 1040-6182
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.quaint.2013.09.023
Publikationsdatum: 08-2014
Peer-reviewed: Ja
ÖFOS 2012: 106018 Humanbiologie
ASJC Scopus Sachgebiete: Earth-Surface Processes
Link zum Portal: https://ucrisportal.univie.ac.at/de/publications/b177b090-ebee-48c5-9dc2-600775b6f5d3

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