title: Mitochondrial Genomes of Giant Deers Suggest their Late Survival in Central Europe.
abstract: The giant deer Megaloceros giganteus is among the most fascinating Late Pleistocene Eurasian megafauna that became extinct at the end of the last ice age. Important questions persist regarding its phylogenetic relationship to contemporary taxa and the reasons for its extinction. We analyzed two large ancient cervid bone fragments recovered from cave sites in the Swabian Jura (Baden-Württemberg, Germany) dated to 12,000 years ago. Using hybridization capture in combination with next generation sequencing, we were able to reconstruct nearly complete mitochondrial genomes from both specimens. Both mtDNAs cluster phylogenetically with fallow deer and show high similarity to previously studied partial Megaloceros giganteus DNA from Kamyshlov in western Siberia and Killavullen in Ireland. The unexpected presence of Megaloceros giganteus in Southern Germany after the Ice Age suggests a later survival in Central Europe than previously proposed. The complete mtDNAs provide strong phylogenetic support for a Dama-Megaloceros clade. Furthermore, isotope analyses support an increasing competition between giant deer, red deer, and reindeer after the Last Glacial Maximum, which might have contributed to the extinction of Megaloceros in Central Europe.
authors.affiliation: Institute for Archaeological Sciences, Archaeo- and Palaeogenetics, University of Tübingen, Tübingen, Germany.
authors.forename: Alexander
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Immel
authors.affiliation: Department of Geosciences, Palaeobiology, University of Tübingen, Tübingen, Germany.
authors.forename: Dorothée G
authors.initials: DG
authors.lastname: Drucker
authors.affiliation: Institute of Clinical Molecular Biology, Kiel University, Kiel, Germany.
authors.forename: Marion
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Bonazzi
authors.affiliation: State Office for Cultural Heritage Baden-Wuerttemberg, Berliner Straße 12, D-73728 Esslingen, Germany.
authors.forename: Tina K
authors.initials: TK
authors.lastname: Jahnke
authors.affiliation: Institute for Archaeological Sciences, Archaeozoology, University of Tübingen, Tübingen, Germany.
authors.forename: Susanne C
authors.initials: SC
authors.lastname: Münzel
authors.affiliation: Institute for Archaeological Sciences, Archaeo- and Palaeogenetics, University of Tübingen, Tübingen, Germany.
authors.forename: Verena J
authors.initials: VJ
authors.lastname: Schuenemann
authors.affiliation: 1] Institute for Archaeological Sciences, Archaeo- and Palaeogenetics, University of Tübingen, Tübingen, Germany [2] Max Planck Institute for the Science of Human History, Khalaische Straße 10, 07745 Jena, Germany.
authors.forename: Alexander
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Herbig
authors.affiliation: State Office for Cultural Heritage Baden-Wuerttemberg, Berliner Straße 12, D-73728 Esslingen, Germany.
authors.forename: Claus-Joachim
authors.initials: CJ
authors.lastname: Kind
authors.affiliation: 1] Institute for Archaeological Sciences, Archaeo- and Palaeogenetics, University of Tübingen, Tübingen, Germany [2] Max Planck Institute for the Science of Human History, Khalaische Straße 10, 07745 Jena, Germany [3] Senckenberg Centre for Human Evolution and Palaeoenvironment, University of Tübingen, Tübingen, Germany.
authors.forename: Johannes
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Krause
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D004272:DNA, Mitochondrial / Q000235:genetics*; D003670:Deer / Q000235:genetics*; D005060:Europe; D005580:Fossils; D054629:Genome, Mitochondrial / Q000235:genetics*; D005858:Germany; D059014:High-Throughput Nucleotide Sequencing / Q000379:methods; D010802:Phylogeny; D017422:Sequence Analysis, DNA / Q000379:methods
chemical_list: D004272:DNA, Mitochondrial