title: A molecular phylogeny of Plesiorycteropus reassigns the extinct mammalian order 'Bibymalagasia'.
abstract: Madagascar is well known for its diverse fauna and flora, being home to many species not found anywhere else in the world. However, its biodiversity in the recent past included a range of extinct enigmatic fauna, such as elephant birds, giant lemurs and dwarfed hippopotami. The 'Malagasy aardvark' (Plesiorycteropus) has remained one of Madagascar's least well-understood extinct species since its discovery in the 19(th) century. Initially considered a close relative of the aardvark (Orycteropus) within the order Tubulidentata, more recent morphological analyses challenged this placement on the grounds that the identifiably derived traits supporting this allocation were adaptations to digging rather than shared ancestry. Because the skeletal evidence showed many morphological traits diagnostic of different eutherian mammal orders, they could not be used to resolve its closest relatives. As a result, the genus was tentatively assigned its own taxonomic order 'Bibymalagasia', yet how this order relates to other eutherian mammal orders remains unclear despite numerous morphological investigations. This research presents the first known molecular sequence data for Plesiorycteropus, obtained from the bone protein collagen (I), which places the 'Malagasy aardvark' as more closely related to tenrecs than aardvarks. More specifically, Plesiorycteropus was recovered within the order Tenrecoidea (golden moles and tenrecs) within Afrotheria, suggesting that the taxonomic order 'Bibymalagasia' is obsolete. This research highlights the potential for collagen sequencing in investigating the phylogeny of extinct species as a viable alternative to ancient DNA (aDNA) sequencing, particularly in cases where aDNA cannot be recovered.
authors.affiliation: Computational and Evolutionary Biology, Faculty of Life Sciences, Manchester Institute of Biotechnology, Manchester, United Kingdom. m.buckley@manchester.ac.uk
authors.forename: Michael
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Buckley
mesh_terms: D000595:Amino Acid Sequence; D000818:Animals; D003094:Collagen / Q000737:chemistry / Q000378:metabolism; D053476:Extinction, Biological; D005580:Fossils; D008322:Mammals / Q000145:classification* / Q000378:metabolism; D008969:Molecular Sequence Data; D010802:Phylogeny; D040901:Proteomics
chemical_list: D003094:Collagen
references.citation: Nat Rev Mol Cell Biol. 2004 Sep;5(9):699-711
references.pmid: 15340378
references.citation: Mol Biol Evol. 2006 Feb;23(2):254-67
references.pmid: 16221896
references.citation: Naturwissenschaften. 1984 Nov;71(11):586-8
references.pmid: 6521758
references.citation: Biomed Mass Spectrom. 1984 Nov;11(11):601
references.pmid: 6525415
references.citation: Rapid Commun Mass Spectrom. 2009 Dec;23(23):3843-54
references.pmid: 19899187
references.citation: Mol Biol Evol. 2004 Feb;21(2):255-65
references.pmid: 14660700
references.citation: Syst Biol. 2003 Oct;52(5):696-704
references.pmid: 14530136
references.citation: Science. 2001 Dec 14;294(5550):2348-51
references.pmid: 11743200
references.citation: Science. 2008 Jan 4;319(5859):33; author reply 33
references.pmid: 18174420
references.citation: Biochem Int. 1990;21(3):491-6
references.pmid: 2222494
references.citation: PLoS One. 2008 Jul 30;3(7):e2808
references.pmid: 18665236
references.citation: BMC Evol Biol. 2007 Jul 03;7:108
references.pmid: 17608930
references.citation: Science. 2009 May 1;324(5927):626-31
references.pmid: 19407199
references.citation: Bioinformatics. 2001 Aug;17(8):754-5
references.pmid: 11524383
references.citation: Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A. 1998 Aug 18;95(17):9967-72
references.pmid: 9707584
references.citation: J Proteome Res. 2009 Sep;8(9):4328-32
references.pmid: 19603827
references.citation: BMC Evol Biol. 2008 Mar 31;8:102
references.pmid: 18377639
references.citation: Science. 2007 Apr 13;316(5822):280-5
references.pmid: 17431180
references.citation: BMC Evol Biol. 2007 Nov 13;7:224
references.pmid: 17999766
references.citation: Nature. 1981 Aug 6;292(5823):538-40
references.pmid: 7254349