• DOI:10.1038/s41559-019-0909-z
• Corpus ID: 174813630

Palaeoproteomics resolves sloth relationships

@article{Presslee2019PalaeoproteomicsRS,
  title={Palaeoproteomics resolves sloth relationships},
  author={Samantha Presslee and Graham J. Slater and François Pujos and Anal{\'i}a M. Forasiepi and Roman Fischer and Kelly R. Molloy and Meaghan Mackie and Jesper Velgaard Olsen and Alejandro Kramarz and Mat{\'i}as L. Taglioretti and Fernando Scaglia and Maximiliano J. Lezcano and Jos{\'e} Luis Lanata and John R. Southon and Robert S. Feranec and Jonathan I. Bloch and Adam Hajduk and Fabiana Mar{\'i}a Martin and Rodolfo Salas Gismondi and Mar Reguero and Christian de Muizon and Alex D. Greenwood and Brian T. Chait and Kirsty E. H. Penkman and Matthew James Collins and Ross D.E. Macphee},
  journal={Nature Ecology \& Evolution},
  year={2019},
  volume={3},
  pages={1121-1130}
}

• Samantha Presslee, G. Slater, +23 authors R. Macphee
• Published 6 June 2019
• Biology
• Nature Ecology & Evolution

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.Palaeoproteomics offers an opportunity to resolve molecular phylogenies especially in contexts where ancient DNA does not preserve. Here collagen sequences resolve sloth phylogenies differently from morphology-based estimates, illuminating the utility of proteomics in systematics.