TY - JOUR

T1 - An extinct and deeply divergent tiger lineage from northeastern China recognized through palaeogenomics

AU - Hu, Jiaming

AU - Westbury, Michael V.

AU - Yuan, Junxia

AU - Wang, Chunxue

AU - Xiao, Bo

AU - Chen, Shungang

AU - Song, Shiwen

AU - Wang, Linying

AU - Lin, Haifeng

AU - Lai, Xulong

AU - Sheng, Guilian

N1 - Publisher Copyright: © 2022 The Author(s).

PY - 2022

Y1 - 2022

N2 - Tigers (Panthera tigris) are flagship big cats and attract extensive public attention due to their charismatic features and endangered status. Despite this, little is known about their prehistoric lineages and detailed evolutionary histories. Through palaeogenomic analyses, we identified a Pleistocene tiger from northeastern China, dated to beyond the limits of radiocarbon dating (greater than 43 500 years ago). We used a simulated dataset and different reads processing pipelines to test the validity of our results and confirmed that, in both mitochondrial and nuclear phylogenies, this ancient individual belongs to a previously unknown lineage that diverged prior to modern tiger diversification. Based on the mitochondrial genome, the divergence time of this ancient lineage was estimated to be approximately 268 ka (95% CI: 187-353 ka), doubling the known age of tigers' maternal ancestor to around 125 ka (95% CI: 88-168 ka). Furthermore, by combining our findings with putative mechanisms underlying the discordant mito-nuclear phylogenetic placement for the South China tigers, we proposed a more complex scenario of tiger evolution that would otherwise be missed using data from modern tigers only. Our study provides the first glimpses of the genetic antiquity of tigers and demonstrates the utility of aDNA-based investigation for further understanding tiger evolution.

AB - Tigers (Panthera tigris) are flagship big cats and attract extensive public attention due to their charismatic features and endangered status. Despite this, little is known about their prehistoric lineages and detailed evolutionary histories. Through palaeogenomic analyses, we identified a Pleistocene tiger from northeastern China, dated to beyond the limits of radiocarbon dating (greater than 43 500 years ago). We used a simulated dataset and different reads processing pipelines to test the validity of our results and confirmed that, in both mitochondrial and nuclear phylogenies, this ancient individual belongs to a previously unknown lineage that diverged prior to modern tiger diversification. Based on the mitochondrial genome, the divergence time of this ancient lineage was estimated to be approximately 268 ka (95% CI: 187-353 ka), doubling the known age of tigers' maternal ancestor to around 125 ka (95% CI: 88-168 ka). Furthermore, by combining our findings with putative mechanisms underlying the discordant mito-nuclear phylogenetic placement for the South China tigers, we proposed a more complex scenario of tiger evolution that would otherwise be missed using data from modern tigers only. Our study provides the first glimpses of the genetic antiquity of tigers and demonstrates the utility of aDNA-based investigation for further understanding tiger evolution.

KW - evolution

KW - palaeogenomics

KW - Panthera tigris

KW - Pleistocene

KW - tiger

U2 - 10.1098/rspb.2022.0617

DO - 10.1098/rspb.2022.0617

M3 - Journal article

C2 - 35892215

AN - SCOPUS:85135131627

VL - 289

JO - Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences

JF - Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences

SN - 0962-8452

IS - 1979

M1 - 20220617

ER -