1
|
Lauer DA, Lawing AM, Short RA, Manthi FK, Müller J, Head JJ, McGuire JL. Disruption of trait-environment relationships in African megafauna occurred in the middle Pleistocene. Nat Commun 2023; 14:4016. [PMID: 37463920 DOI: 10.1038/s41467-023-39480-8] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 01/23/2023] [Accepted: 06/15/2023] [Indexed: 07/20/2023] Open
Abstract
Mammalian megafauna have been critical to the functioning of Earth's biosphere for millions of years. However, since the Plio-Pleistocene, their biodiversity has declined concurrently with dramatic environmental change and hominin evolution. While these biodiversity declines are well-documented, their implications for the ecological function of megafaunal communities remain uncertain. Here, we adapt ecometric methods to evaluate whether the functional link between communities of herbivorous, eastern African megafauna and their environments (i.e., functional trait-environment relationships) was disrupted as biodiversity losses occurred over the past 7.4 Ma. Herbivore taxonomic and functional diversity began to decline during the Pliocene as open grassland habitats emerged, persisted, and expanded. In the mid-Pleistocene, grassland expansion intensified, and climates became more variable and arid. It was then that phylogenetic diversity declined, and the trait-environment relationships of herbivore communities shifted significantly. Our results divulge the varying implications of different losses in megafaunal biodiversity. Only the losses that occurred since the mid-Pleistocene were coincident with a disturbance to community ecological function. Prior diversity losses, conversely, occurred as the megafaunal species and trait pool narrowed towards those adapted to grassland environments.
Collapse
Affiliation(s)
- Daniel A Lauer
- Interdisciplinary Graduate Program in Quantitative Biosciences, Georgia Institute of Technology, Atlanta, GA, 30332, USA.
- School of Biological Sciences, Georgia Institute of Technology, Atlanta, GA, 30332, USA.
| | - A Michelle Lawing
- Department of Ecology and Conservation Biology, Texas A&M University, College Station, TX, 77843, USA
| | - Rachel A Short
- Department of Natural Resource Management, South Dakota State University, Rapid City, SD, 57703, USA
| | - Fredrick K Manthi
- Department of Earth Sciences, National Museums of Kenya, Nairobi, Kenya
| | - Johannes Müller
- Leibniz Institute for Evolution and Biodiversity Science, Museum für Naturkunde Berlin, 10115, Berlin, Germany
| | - Jason J Head
- Department of Zoology and University Museum of Zoology, University of Cambridge, Cambridge, CB2 3EJ, UK
| | - Jenny L McGuire
- Interdisciplinary Graduate Program in Quantitative Biosciences, Georgia Institute of Technology, Atlanta, GA, 30332, USA
- School of Biological Sciences, Georgia Institute of Technology, Atlanta, GA, 30332, USA
- School of Earth and Atmospheric Sciences, Georgia Institute of Technology, Atlanta, GA, 30332, USA
| |
Collapse
|
2
|
Liu S, Westbury MV, Dussex N, Mitchell KJ, Sinding MHS, Heintzman PD, Duchêne DA, Kapp JD, von Seth J, Heiniger H, Sánchez-Barreiro F, Margaryan A, André-Olsen R, De Cahsan B, Meng G, Yang C, Chen L, van der Valk T, Moodley Y, Rookmaaker K, Bruford MW, Ryder O, Steiner C, Bruins-van Sonsbeek LGR, Vartanyan S, Guo C, Cooper A, Kosintsev P, Kirillova I, Lister AM, Marques-Bonet T, Gopalakrishnan S, Dunn RR, Lorenzen ED, Shapiro B, Zhang G, Antoine PO, Dalén L, Gilbert MTP. Ancient and modern genomes unravel the evolutionary history of the rhinoceros family. Cell 2021; 184:4874-4885.e16. [PMID: 34433011 DOI: 10.1016/j.cell.2021.07.032] [Citation(s) in RCA: 27] [Impact Index Per Article: 9.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 03/26/2021] [Revised: 06/16/2021] [Accepted: 07/23/2021] [Indexed: 12/27/2022]
Abstract
Only five species of the once-diverse Rhinocerotidae remain, making the reconstruction of their evolutionary history a challenge to biologists since Darwin. We sequenced genomes from five rhinoceros species (three extinct and two living), which we compared to existing data from the remaining three living species and a range of outgroups. We identify an early divergence between extant African and Eurasian lineages, resolving a key debate regarding the phylogeny of extant rhinoceroses. This early Miocene (∼16 million years ago [mya]) split post-dates the land bridge formation between the Afro-Arabian and Eurasian landmasses. Our analyses also show that while rhinoceros genomes in general exhibit low levels of genome-wide diversity, heterozygosity is lowest and inbreeding is highest in the modern species. These results suggest that while low genetic diversity is a long-term feature of the family, it has been particularly exacerbated recently, likely reflecting recent anthropogenic-driven population declines.
Collapse
Affiliation(s)
- Shanlin Liu
- Department of Entomology, College of Plant Protection, China Agricultural University, Beijing 100193, China; The GLOBE Institute, Faculty of Health and Medical Sciences, University of Copenhagen, 1353 Copenhagen, Denmark.
| | - Michael V Westbury
- The GLOBE Institute, Faculty of Health and Medical Sciences, University of Copenhagen, 1353 Copenhagen, Denmark
| | - Nicolas Dussex
- Centre for Palaeogenetics, Svante Arrhenius vag 20C, Stockholm 10691, Sweden; Department of Bioinformatics and Genetics, Swedish Museum of Natural History, Stockholm 10405, Sweden; Department of Zoology, Stockholm University, Stockholm 10691, Sweden
| | - Kieren J Mitchell
- Australian Centre for Ancient DNA, School of Biological Sciences, University of Adelaide, Adelaide 5005, Australia
| | - Mikkel-Holger S Sinding
- The GLOBE Institute, Faculty of Health and Medical Sciences, University of Copenhagen, 1353 Copenhagen, Denmark
| | - Peter D Heintzman
- The Arctic University Museum of Norway, UiT The Arctic University of Norway, Tromsø 9037, Norway
| | - David A Duchêne
- The GLOBE Institute, Faculty of Health and Medical Sciences, University of Copenhagen, 1353 Copenhagen, Denmark
| | - Joshua D Kapp
- Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, University of California, Santa Cruz, Santa Cruz, CA 95064, USA
| | - Johanna von Seth
- Centre for Palaeogenetics, Svante Arrhenius vag 20C, Stockholm 10691, Sweden; Department of Bioinformatics and Genetics, Swedish Museum of Natural History, Stockholm 10405, Sweden; Department of Zoology, Stockholm University, Stockholm 10691, Sweden
| | - Holly Heiniger
- Australian Centre for Ancient DNA, School of Biological Sciences, University of Adelaide, Adelaide 5005, Australia
| | - Fátima Sánchez-Barreiro
- The GLOBE Institute, Faculty of Health and Medical Sciences, University of Copenhagen, 1353 Copenhagen, Denmark
| | - Ashot Margaryan
- The GLOBE Institute, Faculty of Health and Medical Sciences, University of Copenhagen, 1353 Copenhagen, Denmark
| | - Remi André-Olsen
- Science for Life Laboratory, Department of Biochemistry and Biophysics, Stockholm University, 17121 Solna, Sweden
| | - Binia De Cahsan
- The GLOBE Institute, Faculty of Health and Medical Sciences, University of Copenhagen, 1353 Copenhagen, Denmark
| | - Guanliang Meng
- China National Genebank, BGI Shenzhen, Shenzhen 518083, China
| | - Chentao Yang
- China National Genebank, BGI Shenzhen, Shenzhen 518083, China
| | - Lei Chen
- Center for Ecological and Environmental Sciences, Northwestern Polytechnical University, Xi'an 710072, China
| | - Tom van der Valk
- Department of Cell and Molecular Biology, National Bioinformatics Infrastructure Sweden, Science for Life Laboratory, Uppsala University, Uppsala, Sweden
| | - Yoshan Moodley
- Department of Zoology, University of Venda, Thohoyandou 0950, Republic of South Africa
| | - Kees Rookmaaker
- Editor of the Rhino Resource Center, Utrecht, the Netherlands
| | - Michael W Bruford
- School of Biosciences, Sir Martin Evans Building, Cardiff University, Cardiff CF10 3AX, UK; Sustainable Places Research Institute, Cardiff University, Cardiff CF10 3BA, UK
| | - Oliver Ryder
- San Diego Zoo Wildlife Alliance, Beckman Center for Conservation Research, San Diego, CA 92027, USA
| | - Cynthia Steiner
- San Diego Zoo Wildlife Alliance, Beckman Center for Conservation Research, San Diego, CA 92027, USA
| | | | - Sergey Vartanyan
- N.A. Shilo North-East Interdisciplinary Scientific Research Institute, Far East Branch, Russian Academy of Sciences (NEISRI FEB RAS), Magadan 685000, Russia
| | - Chunxue Guo
- China National Genebank, BGI Shenzhen, Shenzhen 518083, China
| | - Alan Cooper
- South Australian Museum, Adelaide, SA 5000, Australia
| | - Pavel Kosintsev
- Institute of Plant and Animal Ecology, Ural Branch of the Russian Academy of Sciences, Yekaterinburg, Russia; Ural Federal University, Yekaterinburg, Russia
| | - Irina Kirillova
- Institute of Geography, Russian Academy of Sciences, Moscow 119017, Russia
| | - Adrian M Lister
- Department of Earth Sciences, Natural History Museum, London, UK
| | - Tomas Marques-Bonet
- Institute of Evolutionary Biology (UPF-CSIC), Barcelona, Spain; Centre Nacional d'Anàlisi Genòmica, Centre for Genomic Regulation (CNAG-CRG), The Barcelona Institute of Science and Technology, Barcelona, Spain; Institució Catalana de Recerca i Estudis Avançats (ICREA), Barcelona, Spain; Institut Català de Paleontologia Miquel Crusafont, Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona, Barcelona, Spain
| | - Shyam Gopalakrishnan
- The GLOBE Institute, Faculty of Health and Medical Sciences, University of Copenhagen, 1353 Copenhagen, Denmark
| | - Robert R Dunn
- The GLOBE Institute, Faculty of Health and Medical Sciences, University of Copenhagen, 1353 Copenhagen, Denmark; Department of Applied Ecology, North Carolina State University, Raleigh, NC, USA
| | - Eline D Lorenzen
- The GLOBE Institute, Faculty of Health and Medical Sciences, University of Copenhagen, 1353 Copenhagen, Denmark
| | - Beth Shapiro
- Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, University of California, Santa Cruz, Santa Cruz, CA 95064, USA; Howard Hughes Medical Institute, University of California, Santa Cruz, Santa Cruz, CA 96050, USA
| | - Guojie Zhang
- China National Genebank, BGI Shenzhen, Shenzhen 518083, China; Villum Center for Biodiversity Genomics, Section for Ecology and Evolution, Department of Biology, University of Copenhagen, Copenhagen, Denmark; State Key Laboratory of Genetic Resources and Evolution, Kunming Institute of Zoology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Kunming 650223, China; Center for Excellence in Animal Evolution and Genetics, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Kunming 650223, China
| | - Pierre-Olivier Antoine
- Institut des Sciences de l'Évolution, Université Montpellier, CNRS, IRD, EPHE, Montpellier 34095, France
| | - Love Dalén
- Centre for Palaeogenetics, Svante Arrhenius vag 20C, Stockholm 10691, Sweden; Department of Bioinformatics and Genetics, Swedish Museum of Natural History, Stockholm 10405, Sweden; Department of Zoology, Stockholm University, Stockholm 10691, Sweden.
| | - M Thomas P Gilbert
- The GLOBE Institute, Faculty of Health and Medical Sciences, University of Copenhagen, 1353 Copenhagen, Denmark; Norwegian University of Science and Technology (NTNU) University Museum, Trondheim 7012, Norway.
| |
Collapse
|
3
|
Moodley Y, Westbury MV, Russo IRM, Gopalakrishnan S, Rakotoarivelo A, Olsen RA, Prost S, Tunstall T, Ryder OA, Dalén L, Bruford MW. Interspecific Gene Flow and the Evolution of Specialization in Black and White Rhinoceros. Mol Biol Evol 2021; 37:3105-3117. [PMID: 32585004 DOI: 10.1093/molbev/msaa148] [Citation(s) in RCA: 8] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.7] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 12/16/2022] Open
Abstract
Africa's black (Diceros bicornis) and white (Ceratotherium simum) rhinoceros are closely related sister-taxa that evolved highly divergent obligate browsing and grazing feeding strategies. Although their precursor species Diceros praecox and Ceratotherium mauritanicum appear in the fossil record ∼5.2 Ma, by 4 Ma both were still mixed feeders, and were even spatiotemporally sympatric at several Pliocene sites in what is today Africa's Rift Valley. Here, we ask whether or not D. praecox and C. mauritanicum were reproductively isolated when they came into Pliocene secondary contact. We sequenced and de novo assembled the first annotated black rhinoceros reference genome and compared it with available genomes of other black and white rhinoceros. We show that ancestral gene flow between D. praecox and C. mauritanicum ceased sometime between 3.3 and 4.1 Ma, despite conventional methods for the detection of gene flow from whole genome data returning false positive signatures of recent interspecific migration due to incomplete lineage sorting. We propose that ongoing Pliocene genetic exchange, for up to 2 My after initial divergence, could have potentially hindered the development of obligate feeding strategies until both species were fully reproductively isolated, but that the more severe and shifting paleoclimate of the early Pleistocene was likely the ultimate driver of ecological specialization in African rhinoceros.
Collapse
Affiliation(s)
- Yoshan Moodley
- Department of Zoology, University of Venda, Thohoyandou, Republic of South Africa
| | - Michael V Westbury
- Section for Evolutionary Genomics, GLOBE Institute, University of Copenhagen, Copenhagen, Denmark
| | - Isa-Rita M Russo
- School of Biosciences, Cardiff University, Cardiff, United Kingdom
| | - Shyam Gopalakrishnan
- Section for Evolutionary Genomics, GLOBE Institute, University of Copenhagen, Copenhagen, Denmark
| | - Andrinajoro Rakotoarivelo
- Department of Zoology, University of Venda, Thohoyandou, Republic of South Africa.,Natiora Ahy Madagasikara, Ampahibe, Antananarivo, Madagascar
| | - Remi-Andre Olsen
- Science for Life Laboratory, Department of Biochemistry and Biophysics, Stockholm University, Solna, Sweden
| | - Stefan Prost
- LOEWE-Centre for Translational Biodiversity Genomics, Senckenberg Museum, Frankfurt, Germany.,South African National Biodiversity Institute, National Zoological Gardens, Pretoria, Republic of South Africa
| | - Tate Tunstall
- San Diego Zoo Institute for Conservation Research, San Diego Zoo Global, Escondido, CA
| | - Oliver A Ryder
- San Diego Zoo Institute for Conservation Research, San Diego Zoo Global, Escondido, CA
| | - Love Dalén
- Centre for Palaeogenetics, Stockholm, Sweden.,Department of Bioinformatics and Genetics, Swedish Museum of Natural History, Stockholm, Sweden
| | - Michael W Bruford
- School of Biosciences, Cardiff University, Cardiff, United Kingdom.,Sustainable Places Research Institute, Cardiff University, Cardiff, United Kingdom
| |
Collapse
|
4
|
Dumouchel L, Bobe R, Wynn JG, Barr WA. The environments of Australopithecus anamensis at Allia Bay, Kenya: A multiproxy analysis of early Pliocene Bovidae. J Hum Evol 2021; 151:102928. [PMID: 33453510 DOI: 10.1016/j.jhevol.2020.102928] [Citation(s) in RCA: 4] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 03/25/2020] [Revised: 12/01/2020] [Accepted: 12/01/2020] [Indexed: 11/18/2022]
Abstract
Australopithecus anamensis, among the earliest fully bipedal hominin species, lived in eastern Africa around 4 Ma. Much of what is currently known about the paleoecology of A. anamensis comes from the type locality, Kanapoi, Kenya. Here, we extend knowledge of the range of environments occupied by A. anamensis by presenting the first multiproxy paleoecological analysis focusing on Bovidae excavated from another important locality where A. anamensis was recovered, locality 261-1 (ca. 3.97 Ma) at Allia Bay, East Turkana, Kenya. Paleoenvironments are reconstructed using astragalar ecomorphology, mesowear, hypsodonty index, and oxygen and carbon isotopes from dental enamel. We compare our results to those obtained from Kanapoi. Our results show that the bovid community composition is similar between the two fossil assemblages. Allia Bay and Kanapoi bovid astragalar ecomorphology spans the spectrum of modern morphologies indicative of grassland, woodland, and even forest-adapted forms. Dietary reconstructions based on stable isotopes, mesowear, and hypsodonty reveal that these bovids' diet encompassed the full C3 to C4 dietary spectrum and overlap in the two data sets. Our results allow us to confidently extend our reconstructions of the paleoenvironments of A. anamensis at Kanapoi to Allia Bay, where this pivotal hominin species is associated with heterogeneous settings including habitats with varying degrees of tree cover, including grasslands, bushlands, and woodlands.
Collapse
Affiliation(s)
- Laurence Dumouchel
- Department of Anthropology, Wichita State University, 1845 Fairmount Street, Wichita, KS 67260, USA.
| | - René Bobe
- Primate Models for Behavioural Evolution Lab, Institute of Cognitive & Evolutionary Anthropology, School of Anthropology, University of Oxford, 64 Banbury Rd, Park Town, Oxford, OX2 6PN, UK; Paleo-Primate Project Gorongosa, Gorongosa National Park, Sofala, Mozambique; Interdisciplinary Center for Archaeology and Evolution of Human Behaviour (ICArEHB), Universidade Do Algarve, Campus de Penha, Faro, 8005-139, Portugal
| | - Jonathan G Wynn
- Division of Earth Sciences, National Science Foundation, 2415 Eisenhower Avenue, Alexandria, VA 22314, USA
| | - W Andrew Barr
- Center for the Advanced Study of Human Paleobiology, The George Washington University, 800 22(nd)Street Northwest, Suite 6000, Washington, DC 20052, USA
| |
Collapse
|