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Sharko, Fedor S.; Rastorguev, Sergey M.; Boulygina, Eugenia S.; Tsygankova, Svetlana V.; Ibragimova, Amina S.; Tikhonov, Alexey N.; Nedoluzhko, Artem V.
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2019 |
Molecular phylogeny of the extinct Steller's sea cow and other Sirenia species based on their complete mitochondrial genomes
Genomics 111(6): 1543-1546. 1 fig. https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0888754318304750 Dec. 2019.
–ABSTRACT: The Steller's sea cow – Hydrodamalis gigas (Dugongidae: Sirenia) – is an extinct herbivorous marine mammal which inhabited the North Pacific Ocean during the Pleistocene and Holocene. H. gigas was the largest member of the Sirenia order and disappeared in the middle of the 18th century. Here, we present the complete sequence of the mitochondrial genome of this extinct animal. The Steller's sea cow mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) is 16,872 base pairs (bp) in length and contains a set of mitochondrial genes typical for mammals. Phylogenetic analysis based on complete mitochondrial genomes of the sirenian species allows accurate assessment of the degree of their mitogenomic diversification during millions of years of evolution.
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Sharko, Fedor S.; Boulygina, Eugenia S.; Tsygankova, Svetlana V.; Slobodova, Natalia V.; Alekseev, Dmitry A.; Krasivskaya, Anna A.; Rastorguev, Sergey M.; Tikhonov, Alexei N.; Nedoluzhko, Artem V.
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2021 |
Steller's sea cow genome suggests this species began going extinct before the arrival of Paleolithic humans.
Nature Communications 12(2215): 1-8. 3 figs. + online supplementary information. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-021-22567-5 Publ. online Apr. 13, 2021.
–ABSTRACT: Anthropogenic activity is the top factor directly related to the extinction of several animal species. The last Steller's sea cow (Hydrodamalis gigas) population on the Commander Islands(Russia) was wiped out in the second half of the 18th century due to sailors and fur traders hunting it for the meat and fat. However, new data suggests that the extinction process of this species began much earlier. Here, we present a nuclear de novo assembled genome of H. gigas with a 25.4× depth coverage. Our results demonstrate that the heterozygosity of the last population of this animal is low and comparable to the last woolly mammoth population that inhabited Wrangel Island 4000 years ago. Besides, as a matter of consideration, our findings also demonstrate that the extinction of this marine mammal starts along the North Pacific coastal line much earlier than the first Paleolithic humans arrived in the Bering sea region.
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Bibliography and Index of the Sirenia and Desmostylia 