2024-03-29T07:47:35Zhttp://digital.csic.es/dspace-oai/requestoai:digital.csic.es:10261/14292021-12-27T15:35:38Zcom_10261_41com_10261_1col_10261_294
00925njm 22002777a 4500
dc
Lalueza-Fox, Carles
author
Castresana, José
author
Sampietro, Lourdes
author
Marqués-Bonet, Tomàs
author
Alcover, Josep Antoni
author
Bertranpetit, Jaume
author
2005-12-06
[Background] Myotragus balearicus was an endemic bovid from the Balearic Islands (Western Mediterranean) that became extinct around 6,000-4,000 years ago. The Myotragus evolutionary lineage became isolated in the islands most probably at the end of the Messinian crisis, when the desiccation of the Mediterranean ended, in a geological date established at 5.35 Mya. Thus, the sequences of Myotragus could be very valuable for calibrating the mammalian mitochondrial DNA clock and, in particular, the tree of the Caprinae subfamily, to which Myotragus belongs.
[Results] We have retrieved the complete mitochondrial cytochrome b gene (1,143 base pairs), plus fragments of the mitochondrial 12S gene and the nuclear 28S rDNA multi-copy gene from a well preserved Myotragus subfossil bone. The best resolved phylogenetic trees, obtained with the cytochrome b gene, placed Myotragus in a position basal to the Ovis group. Using the calibration provided by the isolation of Balearic Islands, we calculated that the initial radiation of caprines can be dated at 6.2 ± 0.4 Mya. In addition, alpine and southern chamois, considered until recently the same species, split around 1.6 ± 0.3 Mya, indicating that the two chamois species have been separated much longer than previously thought.
[Conclusion] Since there are almost no extant endemic mammals in Mediterranean islands, the sequence of the extinct Balearic endemic Myotragus has been crucial for allowing us to use the Messinian crisis calibration point for dating the caprines phylogenetic tree.
BMC Evolutionary Biology 2005, 5:70
1471-2148
http://hdl.handle.net/10261/1429
10.1186/1471-2148-5-70
16332256
Molecular dating of caprines using ancient DNA sequences of Myotragus balearicus, an extinct endemic Balearic mammal