Nuclear genomic sequences reveal that polar bears are an old and distinct bear lineage

Recent studies have shown that the polar bear matriline (mitochondrial DNA) evolved from a brown bear lineage since the late Pleistocene, potentially indicating rapid speciation and adaption to arctic conditions. Here, we present a high-resolution data set from multiple independent loci across the n...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Science
Main Authors: Hailer, Frank, Kutschera, Verena E., Hallstroem, Bjoern M., Klassert, Denise, Fain, Steven R., Leonard, Jennifer A., Arnason, Ulfur, Janke, Axel
Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
Language:unknown
Published: American Association for the Advancement of Science 2012
Subjects:
Arctic
brown bear
Online Access:https://orca.cardiff.ac.uk/id/eprint/69928/
https://doi.org/10.1126/science.1216424
Description
Summary:Recent studies have shown that the polar bear matriline (mitochondrial DNA) evolved from a brown bear lineage since the late Pleistocene, potentially indicating rapid speciation and adaption to arctic conditions. Here, we present a high-resolution data set from multiple independent loci across the nuclear genomes of a broad sample of polar, brown, and black bears. Bayesian coalescent analyses place polar bears outside the brown bear clade and date the divergence much earlier, in the middle Pleistocene, about 600 (338 to 934) thousand years ago. This provides more time for polar bear evolution and confirms previous suggestions that polar bears carry introgressed brown bear mitochondrial DNA due to past hybridization. Our results highlight that multilocus genomic analyses are crucial for an accurate understanding of evolutionary history.

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