Collagen Sequence Analysis of the Extinct Giant Ground Sloths Lestodon and Megatherium

BUCKLEY, MICHAEL; FARIÑA, RICHARD; LAWLESS, CRAIG; TAMBUSSO, P. SEBASTIÁN; VARELA, LUCIANO; CARLINI, ALFREDO; POWELL, JAIME E.; MARTÍNEZ, JORGE G.

PLOS ONE

PUBLIC LIBRARY SCIENCE

Lugar: Frankfurt; Año: 2015 vol. 10 p. 1 - 11

1932-6203

For over 200 years, fossils of bizarre extinct creatures have been described from the Americasthat have ranged from giant ground sloths to the ?native? South American ungulates,groups of mammals that evolved in relative isolation on South America. Ground slothsbelong to the South American xenarthrans, a group with modern although morphologicallyand ecologically very different representatives (anteaters, armadillos and sloths), which hasbeen proposed to be one of the four main eutherian clades. Recently, proteomics analysesof bone collagen have recently been used to yield a molecular phylogeny for a range ofmammals including the unusual ?Malagasy aardvark? shown to be most closely related tothe afrotherian tenrecs, and the south American ungulates supporting their morphologicalassociation with condylarths. However, proteomics results generate partial sequence informationthat could impact upon the phylogenetic placement that has not been appropriatelytested. For comparison, this paper examines the phylogenetic potential of proteomicsbasedsequencing through the analysis of collagen extracted from two extinct giant groundsloths, Lestodon and Megatherium. The ground sloths were placed as sister taxa to extantsloths, but with a closer relationship between Lestodon and the extant sloths than the basalMegatherium. These results highlight that proteomics methods could yield plausible phylogeniesthat share similarities with other methods, but have the potential to be more useful infossils beyond the limits of ancient DNA survival.