Palaeoproteomics resolves sloth relationships

Samantha Presslee , Graham J Slater , François Pujos (1) , Analía M Forasiepi , Roman Fischer , Kelly Molloy , Meaghan Mackie , Jesper V Olsen , Alejandro Kramarz , Matías Taglioretti , Fernando Scaglia , Maximiliano Lezcano , José Luis Lanata , John Southon (2) , Robert Feranec , Jonathan Bloch , Adam Hajduk , Fabiana M Martin (3) , Rodolfo Salas Gismondi (4) , Marcelo Reguero , Christian de Muizon (5) , Alex Greenwood , Brian T Chait (6) , Kirsty Penkman , Matthew Collins , Ross D E Macphee (7)

1 CONICET-IANIGLA - Instituto Argentino de Nivología, Glaciología y Ciencias Ambientales [Mendoza]
2 ESS - Department of Earth System Science [Irvine]
3 Centro de Estudios del Hombre Austral
4 MHN - Museo de Historia Natural de Lima
5 CR2P - Centre de Recherche en Paléontologie - Paris
6 Rockefeller University [New York]
7 AMNH - American Museum of Natural History [New York, USA] = Musée américain d'histoire naturelle [New York, USA]

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.

Domaines: Biologie moléculaire

Samantha Presslee, Graham J Slater, François Pujos, Analía M Forasiepi, Roman Fischer, et al.. Palaeoproteomics resolves sloth relationships. Nature Ecology & Evolution, 2019, 3 (7), pp.1121 - 1130. ⟨10.1038/s41559-019-0909-z⟩. ⟨hal-03424226⟩