4.5 Article

The first European woolly rhinoceros mitogenomes, retrieved from cave hyena coprolites, suggest long-term phylogeographic differentiation

Journal

BIOLOGY LETTERS
Volume 19, Issue 11, Pages -

Publisher

ROYAL SOC
DOI: 10.1098/rsbl.2023.0343

Keywords

ancient DNA; predator; prey; Hyaenidae; Rhinocerotidae; mammal

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This study successfully obtained the mitochondrial genomes of European woolly rhinoceros using coprolites of cave hyenas found in German caves. The results showed genetic differences between European and Siberian woolly rhinoceros populations, and suggested a potential split of populations coinciding with the earliest fossil records of woolly rhinoceros in Europe.
The woolly rhinoceros (Coelodonta antiquitatis) is an iconic species of the Eurasian Pleistocene megafauna, which was abundant in Eurasia in the Pleistocene until its demise beginning approximately 10 000 years ago. Despite the early recovery of several specimens from well-known European archaeological sites, including its type specimen (Blumenbach 1799), no genomes of European populations were available so far, and all available genomic data originated exclusively from Siberian populations. Using coprolites of cave hyenas (Crocuta crocuta spelea) recovered from Middle Palaeolithic layers of two caves in Germany (Bockstein-Loch and Hohlenstein-Stadel), we isolated and enriched predator and prey DNA to assemble the first European woolly rhinoceros mitogenomes, in addition to cave hyena mitogenomes. Both coprolite samples produced copious sequences assigned to C. crocuta (27% and 59% mitogenome coverage, respectively) and woolly rhinoceros (Coelodonta antiquitatis; 27% and 81% coverage, respectively). The sequences suggested considerable DNA degradation, which may limit the conclusions to be drawn; however, the mitogenomes of European woolly rhinoceros are genetically distinct from the Siberian woolly rhinoceros, and analyses of the more complete mitogenome suggest a split of the populations potentially coinciding with the earliest fossil records of woolly rhinoceros in Europe.

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