Ancient DNA reveals multiple origins and migration waves of extinct Japanese brown bear lineages
Little is known about how mammalian biogeography on islands was affected by sea-level fluctuations. In the Japanese Archipelago, brown bears (Ursus arctos) currently inhabit only Hokkaido, the northern island, but Pleistocene fossils indicate a past distribution throughout Honshu, Japan's large...
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2021
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ftunivcam:oai:www.repository.cam.ac.uk:1810/326490 2023-10-29T02:40:45+01:00 Ancient DNA reveals multiple origins and migration waves of extinct Japanese brown bear lineages Segawa, Takahiro Yonezawa, Takahiro Mori, Hiroshi Akiyoshi, Ayumi Allentoft, Morten E. Kohno, Ayako Tokanai, Fuyuki Willerslev, Eske Kohno, Naoki Nishihara, Hidenori 2021-08-11T15:51:55Z text/xml application/pdf https://www.repository.cam.ac.uk/handle/1810/326490 https://doi.org/10.17863/CAM.73939 en eng The Royal Society Royal Society Open Science https://www.repository.cam.ac.uk/handle/1810/326490 doi:10.17863/CAM.73939 Organismal and evolutionary biology Research articles ancient DNA brown bear mitochondrial genomes Pleistocene megafauna Article 2021 ftunivcam https://doi.org/10.17863/CAM.73939 2023-10-05T22:19:54Z Little is known about how mammalian biogeography on islands was affected by sea-level fluctuations. In the Japanese Archipelago, brown bears (Ursus arctos) currently inhabit only Hokkaido, the northern island, but Pleistocene fossils indicate a past distribution throughout Honshu, Japan's largest island. However, the difficulty of recovering ancient DNA from fossils in temperate East Asia has limited our understanding of their evolutionary history. Here, we analysed mitochondrial DNA from a 32 500-year-old brown bear fossil from Honshu. Our results show that this individual belonged to a previously unknown lineage that split approximately 160 Ka from its sister lineage, the southern Hokkaido clade. This divergence time and fossil record suggest that brown bears migrated from the Eurasian continent to Honshu at least twice; the first population was an early-diverging lineage (greater than 340 Ka), and the second migrated via Hokkaido after approximately 160 Ka, during the ice age. Thus, glacial-age sea-level falls might have facilitated migrations of large mammals more frequently than previously thought, which may have had a substantial impact on ecosystem dynamics in these isolated islands. Article in Journal/Newspaper Ursus arctos Apollo - University of Cambridge Repository |
institution |
Open Polar |
collection |
Apollo - University of Cambridge Repository |
op_collection_id |
ftunivcam |
language |
English |
topic |
Organismal and evolutionary biology Research articles ancient DNA brown bear mitochondrial genomes Pleistocene megafauna |
spellingShingle |
Organismal and evolutionary biology Research articles ancient DNA brown bear mitochondrial genomes Pleistocene megafauna Segawa, Takahiro Yonezawa, Takahiro Mori, Hiroshi Akiyoshi, Ayumi Allentoft, Morten E. Kohno, Ayako Tokanai, Fuyuki Willerslev, Eske Kohno, Naoki Nishihara, Hidenori Ancient DNA reveals multiple origins and migration waves of extinct Japanese brown bear lineages |
topic_facet |
Organismal and evolutionary biology Research articles ancient DNA brown bear mitochondrial genomes Pleistocene megafauna |
description |
Little is known about how mammalian biogeography on islands was affected by sea-level fluctuations. In the Japanese Archipelago, brown bears (Ursus arctos) currently inhabit only Hokkaido, the northern island, but Pleistocene fossils indicate a past distribution throughout Honshu, Japan's largest island. However, the difficulty of recovering ancient DNA from fossils in temperate East Asia has limited our understanding of their evolutionary history. Here, we analysed mitochondrial DNA from a 32 500-year-old brown bear fossil from Honshu. Our results show that this individual belonged to a previously unknown lineage that split approximately 160 Ka from its sister lineage, the southern Hokkaido clade. This divergence time and fossil record suggest that brown bears migrated from the Eurasian continent to Honshu at least twice; the first population was an early-diverging lineage (greater than 340 Ka), and the second migrated via Hokkaido after approximately 160 Ka, during the ice age. Thus, glacial-age sea-level falls might have facilitated migrations of large mammals more frequently than previously thought, which may have had a substantial impact on ecosystem dynamics in these isolated islands. |
format |
Article in Journal/Newspaper |
author |
Segawa, Takahiro Yonezawa, Takahiro Mori, Hiroshi Akiyoshi, Ayumi Allentoft, Morten E. Kohno, Ayako Tokanai, Fuyuki Willerslev, Eske Kohno, Naoki Nishihara, Hidenori |
author_facet |
Segawa, Takahiro Yonezawa, Takahiro Mori, Hiroshi Akiyoshi, Ayumi Allentoft, Morten E. Kohno, Ayako Tokanai, Fuyuki Willerslev, Eske Kohno, Naoki Nishihara, Hidenori |
author_sort |
Segawa, Takahiro |
title |
Ancient DNA reveals multiple origins and migration waves of extinct Japanese brown bear lineages |
title_short |
Ancient DNA reveals multiple origins and migration waves of extinct Japanese brown bear lineages |
title_full |
Ancient DNA reveals multiple origins and migration waves of extinct Japanese brown bear lineages |
title_fullStr |
Ancient DNA reveals multiple origins and migration waves of extinct Japanese brown bear lineages |
title_full_unstemmed |
Ancient DNA reveals multiple origins and migration waves of extinct Japanese brown bear lineages |
title_sort |
ancient dna reveals multiple origins and migration waves of extinct japanese brown bear lineages |
publisher |
The Royal Society |
publishDate |
2021 |
url |
https://www.repository.cam.ac.uk/handle/1810/326490 https://doi.org/10.17863/CAM.73939 |
genre |
Ursus arctos |
genre_facet |
Ursus arctos |
op_relation |
https://www.repository.cam.ac.uk/handle/1810/326490 doi:10.17863/CAM.73939 |
op_doi |
https://doi.org/10.17863/CAM.73939 |
_version_ |
1781069372559720448 |