AI Article Synopsis

  • The extinct New World stilt-legged (NWSL) equids were a unique group of horses that lived in North America during the Pleistocene and have skeletal features similar to Asiatic asses.
  • Previous genetic studies indicated that NWSL equids may actually be more closely related to modern caballine horses.
  • New genomic analyses suggest that instead of multiple species, there was only one NWSL equid species, leading to the proposal of a new genus to better classify it and enhance our understanding of the Pleistocene extinction event.

Article Abstract

The extinct 'New World stilt-legged', or NWSL, equids constitute a perplexing group of Pleistocene horses endemic to North America. Their slender distal limb bones resemble those of Asiatic asses, such as the Persian onager. Previous palaeogenetic studies, however, have suggested a closer relationship to caballine horses than to Asiatic asses. Here, we report complete mitochondrial and partial nuclear genomes from NWSL equids from across their geographic range. Although multiple NWSL equid species have been named, our palaeogenomic and morphometric analyses support the idea that there was only a single species of middle to late Pleistocene NWSL equid, and demonstrate that it falls outside of crown group . We therefore propose a new genus, , for the sole species . Our combined genomic and phenomic approach to resolving the systematics of extinct megafauna will allow for an improved understanding of the full extent of the terminal Pleistocene extinction event.

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Source
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5705217PMC
http://dx.doi.org/10.7554/eLife.29944DOI Listing

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