title: Out of America: ancient DNA evidence for a new world origin of late quaternary woolly mammoths.
abstract: Although the iconic mammoth of the Late Pleistocene, the woolly mammoth (Mammuthus primigenius), has traditionally been regarded as the end point of a single anagenetically evolving lineage, recent paleontological and molecular studies have shown that successive allopatric speciation events must have occurred within Pleistocene Mammuthus in Asia, with subsequent expansion and hybridization between nominal taxa [1, 2]. However, the role of North American mammoth populations in these events has not been adequately explored from an ancient-DNA standpoint. To undertake this task, we analyzed mtDNA from a large data set consisting of mammoth samples from across Holarctica (n = 160) and representing most of radiocarbon time. Our evidence shows that, during the terminal Pleistocene, haplotypes originating in and characteristic of New World populations replaced or succeeded those endemic to Asia and western Beringia. Also, during the Last Glacial Maximum, mammoth populations do not appear to have suffered an overall decline in diversity, despite differing responses on either side of the Bering land bridge. In summary, the "Out-of-America" hypothesis holds that the dispersal of North American woolly mammoths into other parts of Holarctica created major phylogeographic structuring within Mammuthus primigenius populations, shaping the last phase of their evolutionary history before their demise.
authors.affiliation: McMaster Ancient DNA Centre, Department of Anthropology, McMaster University, 1280 Main Street West, Hamilton, Ontario L8S 4L9, Canada.
authors.forename: Regis
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Debruyne
authors.forename: Genevieve
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Chu
authors.forename: Christine E
authors.initials: CE
authors.lastname: King
authors.forename: Kirsti
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Bos
authors.forename: Melanie
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Kuch
authors.forename: Carsten
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Schwarz
authors.forename: Paul
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Szpak
authors.forename: Darren R
authors.initials: DR
authors.lastname: Gröcke
authors.forename: Paul
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Matheus
authors.forename: Grant
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Zazula
authors.forename: Dale
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Guthrie
authors.forename: Duane
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Froese
authors.forename: Bernard
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Buigues
authors.forename: Christian
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: de Marliave
authors.forename: Clare
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Flemming
authors.forename: Debi
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Poinar
authors.forename: Daniel
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Fisher
authors.forename: John
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Southon
authors.forename: Alexei N
authors.initials: AN
authors.lastname: Tikhonov
authors.forename: Ross D E
authors.initials: RD
authors.lastname: MacPhee
authors.forename: Hendrik N
authors.initials: HN
authors.lastname: Poinar
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D001208:Asia; D044822:Biodiversity; D004272:DNA, Mitochondrial / Q000737:chemistry*; D053476:Extinction, Biological; D005580:Fossils; D005843:Geography; D006239:Haplotypes; D008322:Mammals / Q000235:genetics*; D009656:North America; D010802:Phylogeny; D011157:Population Dynamics
chemical_list: D004272:DNA, Mitochondrial