@misc{MeyerPalkopoulouBalekaetal.2017, author = {Meyer, Matthias and Palkopoulou, Eleftheria and Baleka, Sina Isabelle and Stiller, Mathias and Penkman, Kirsty E. H. and Alt, Kurt W. and Ishida, Yasuko and Mania, Dietrich and Mallick, Swapan and Meijer, Tom and Meller, Harald and Nagel, Sarah and Nickel, Birgit and Ostritz, Sven and Rohland, Nadin and Schauer, Karol and Sch{\"u}ler, Tim and Roca, Alfred L. and Reich, David and Shapiro, Beth and Hofreiter, Michael}, title = {Palaeogenomes of Eurasian straight-tusked elephants challenge the current view of elephant evolution}, series = {Postprints der Universit{\"a}t Potsdam Mathematisch-Naturwissenschaftliche Reihe}, journal = {Postprints der Universit{\"a}t Potsdam Mathematisch-Naturwissenschaftliche Reihe}, number = {790}, issn = {1866-8372}, doi = {10.25932/publishup-44013}, url = {http://nbn-resolving.de/urn:nbn:de:kobv:517-opus4-440139}, pages = {14}, year = {2017}, abstract = {The straight-tusked elephants Palaeoloxodon spp. were widespread across Eurasia during the Pleistocene. Phylogenetic reconstructions using morphological traits have grouped them with Asian elephants (Elephas maximus), and many paleontologists place Palaeoloxodon within Elephas. Here, we report the recovery of full mitochondrial genomes from four and partial nuclear genomes from two P. antiquus fossils. These fossils were collected at two sites in Germany, Neumark-Nord and Weimar-Ehringsdorf, and likely date to interglacial periods similar to 120 and similar to 244 thousand years ago, respectively. Unexpectedly, nuclear and mitochondrial DNA analyses suggest that P. antiquus was a close relative of extant African forest elephants (Loxodonta cyclotis). Species previously referred to Palaeoloxodon are thus most parsimoniously explained as having diverged from the lineage of Loxodonta, indicating that Loxodonta has not been constrained to Africa. Our results demonstrate that the current picture of elephant evolution is in need of substantial revision.}, language = {en} } @misc{PinhasiFernandesSiraketal.2015, author = {Pinhasi, Ron and Fernandes, Daniel and Sirak, Kendra and Novak, Mario and Connell, Sarah and Alpaslan-Roodenberg, Song{\"u}l and Gerritsen, Fokke and Moiseyev, Vyacheslav and Gromov, Andrey and Raczky, P{\´a}l and Anders, Alexandra and Pietrusewsky, Michael and Rollefson, Gary and Jovanovic, Marija and Trinhhoang, Hiep and Bar-Oz, Guy and Oxenham, Marc and Matsumura, Hirofumi and Hofreiter, Michael}, title = {Optimal ancient DNA yields from the inner ear part of the human petrous bone}, series = {Postprints der Universit{\"a}t Potsdam : Mathematisch-Naturwissenschafliche Reihe}, journal = {Postprints der Universit{\"a}t Potsdam : Mathematisch-Naturwissenschafliche Reihe}, number = {515}, issn = {1866-8372}, doi = {10.25932/publishup-40955}, url = {http://nbn-resolving.de/urn:nbn:de:kobv:517-opus4-409557}, pages = {13}, year = {2015}, abstract = {The invention and development of next or second generation sequencing methods has resulted in a dramatic transformation of ancient DNA research and allowed shotgun sequencing of entire genomes from fossil specimens. However, although there are exceptions, most fossil specimens contain only low (similar to 1\% or less) percentages of endogenous DNA. The only skeletal element for which a systematically higher endogenous DNA content compared to other skeletal elements has been shown is the petrous part of the temporal bone. In this study we investigate whether (a) different parts of the petrous bone of archaeological human specimens give different percentages of endogenous DNA yields, (b) there are significant differences in average DNA read lengths, damage patterns and total DNA concentration, and (c) it is possible to obtain endogenous ancient DNA from petrous bones from hot environments. We carried out intra-petrous comparisons for ten petrous bones from specimens from Holocene archaeological contexts across Eurasia dated between 10,0001,800 calibrated years before present (cal. BP). We obtained shotgun DNA sequences from three distinct areas within the petrous: a spongy part of trabecular bone (part A), the dense part of cortical bone encircling the osseous inner ear, or otic capsule (part B), and the dense part within the otic capsule (part C). Our results confirm that dense bone parts of the petrous bone can provide high endogenous aDNA yields and indicate that endogenous DNA fractions for part C can exceed those obtained for part B by up to 65-fold and those from part A by up to 177-fold, while total endogenous DNA concentrations are up to 126-fold and 109-fold higher for these comparisons. Our results also show that while endogenous yields from part C were lower than 1\% for samples from hot (both arid and humid) parts, the DNA damage patterns indicate that at least some of the reads originate from ancient DNA molecules, potentially enabling ancient DNA analyses of samples from hot regions that are otherwise not amenable to ancient DNA analyses.}, language = {en} } @misc{WestburyBalekaBarlowetal.2017, author = {Westbury, Michael V. and Baleka, Sina Isabelle and Barlow, Axel and Hartmann, Stefanie and Paijmans, Johanna L. A. and Kramarz, Alejandro and Forasiepi, Anal{\´i}a M. and Bond, Mariano and Gelfo, Javier N. and Reguero, Marcelo A. and L{\´o}pez-Mendoza, Patricio and Taglioretti, Matias and Scaglia, Fernando and Rinderknecht, Andr{\´e}s and Jones, Washington and Mena, Francisco and Billet, Guillaume and de Muizon, Christian and Aguilar, Jos{\´e} Luis and MacPhee, Ross D.E. and Hofreiter, Michael}, title = {A mitogenomic timetree for Darwin's enigmatic South American mammal Macrauchenia patachonica}, series = {Postprints der Universit{\"a}t Potsdam Mathematisch-Naturwissenschaftliche Reihe}, journal = {Postprints der Universit{\"a}t Potsdam Mathematisch-Naturwissenschaftliche Reihe}, number = {793}, issn = {1866-8372}, doi = {10.25932/publishup-44080}, url = {http://nbn-resolving.de/urn:nbn:de:kobv:517-opus4-440801}, pages = {8}, year = {2017}, abstract = {The unusual mix of morphological traits displayed by extinct South American native ungulates (SANUs) confounded both Charles Darwin, who first discovered them, and Richard Owen, who tried to resolve their relationships. Here we report an almost complete mitochondrial genome for the litoptern Macrauchenia. Our dated phylogenetic tree places Macrauchenia as sister to Perissodactyla, but close to the radiation of major lineages within Laurasiatheria. This position is consistent with a divergence estimate of B66Ma (95\% credibility interval, 56.64-77.83 Ma) obtained for the split between Macrauchenia and other Panperissodactyla. Combined with their morphological distinctiveness, this evidence supports the positioning of Litopterna (possibly in company with other SANU groups) as a separate order within Laurasiatheria. We also show that, when using strict criteria, extinct taxa marked by deep divergence times and a lack of close living relatives may still be amenable to palaeogenomic analysis through iterative mapping against more distant relatives.}, language = {en} }