Title
Palaeoproteomics resolves sloth relationships
Date Issued
01 July 2019
Access level
open access
Resource Type
journal article
Author(s)
Presslee S.
Slater G.J.
Pujos F.
Forasiepi A.M.
Fischer R.
Molloy K.
Mackie M.
Olsen J.V.
Kramarz A.
Taglioretti M.
Scaglia F.
Lezcano M.
Lanata J.L.
Southon J.
Feranec R.
Bloch J.
Hajduk A.
Martin F.M.
Reguero M.
de Muizon C.
Greenwood A.
Chait B.T.
Penkman K.
Collins M.
MacPhee R.D.E.
Publisher(s)
Nature Publishing Group
Abstract
The living tree sloths Choloepus and Bradypus are the only remaining members of Folivora, a major xenarthran radiation that occupied a wide range of habitats in many parts of the western hemisphere during the Cenozoic, including both continents and the West Indies. Ancient DNA evidence has played only a minor role in folivoran systematics, as most sloths lived in places not conducive to genomic preservation. Here we utilize collagen sequence information, both separately and in combination with published mitochondrial DNA evidence, to assess the relationships of tree sloths and their extinct relatives. Results from phylogenetic analysis of these datasets differ substantially from morphology-based concepts: Choloepus groups with Mylodontidae, not Megalonychidae; Bradypus and Megalonyx pair together as megatherioids, while monophyletic Antillean sloths may be sister to all other folivorans. Divergence estimates are consistent with fossil evidence for mid-Cenozoic presence of sloths in the West Indies and an early Miocene radiation in South America.
Start page
1121
End page
1130
Volume
3
Issue
7
Language
English
OCDE Knowledge area
Paleontología
Scopus EID
2-s2.0-85067016608
PubMed ID
Source
Nature Ecology and Evolution
ISSN of the container
2397334X
Sponsor(s)
We thank the curatorial staffs of the following museums and private collections for permission to sample specimens in their care: AMNH-M, American Museum of Natural History (Mammalogy), New York, USA; AMNH-P, American Museum of Natural History (Paleontology), New York, USA; CIV, Iota Quatro faunal collection, courtesy of Lazaro Vinola; El Trebol faunal collection, Bariloche, Argentina; FR, Forest Reserve (Trinidad) faunal collection currently housed in Department of Mammalogy, AMNH, New York, USA; IANIGLA-PV, Instituto Argentino de Nivología, Glaciología y Ciencias Ambientales, CCT-CONICET-Mendoza, Mendoza, Argentina; MACN-PV, Museo Argentino de Ciencias Naturales ‘Bernardino Rivadavia’ (Sección Paleovertebrados), Buenos Aires, Argentina; MAPBAR, Museo de la Asociación Paleontológica Bariloche (APB), prov. Río Negro, Argentina; MMP, Museo Municipal de Ciencias Naturales ‘Lorenzo Scaglia’ Mar del Plata, prov. Buenos Aires, Argentina; MNHN SAO, Muséum national d’Histoire naturelle, Paris, France; MPS, Museo Paleontológico ‘Fray Manuel de Torres’, San Pedro, prov. Buenos Aires, Argentina; MUSM, Museo de Historia Natural de la Universidad Nacional Mayor de San Marcos, Lima, Peru; NYSM VP, New York State Museum (Vertebrate Paleontology), Albany, USA; RM, Cuban faunal collection currently housed in Department of Mammalogy, AMNH, New York, USA; UF, University of Florida, Natural History Museum of Florida (Vertebrate Paleontology), Gainesville, USA; UMAG ah, Instituto de La Patagonia, Universidad de Magallanes, Punta Arenas, Chile; USNM, United States National Museum of Natural History (Paleobiology), Washington DC, USA. Samples of specimens housed in Argentinian collections were sampled before 2009. S.P. would like to thank B. Demarchi for useful discussion and support. The authors thank the National Science Foundation for grants (No. OPP 0636639 to R.D.E.M. and No. DEB 1547414 to R.D.E.M., M.C. and K.P.).
Sources of information:
Directorio de Producción Científica
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