Collagen Sequence Analysis of the Extinct Giant Ground Sloths Lestodon and Megatherium.

ABSTRACT: For over 200 years, fossils of bizarre extinct creatures have been described from the Americas that have ranged from giant ground sloths to the 'native' South American ungulates, groups of mammals that evolved in relative isolation on South America. Ground sloths belong to the South American xenarthrans, a group with modern although morphologically and ecologically very different representatives (anteaters, armadillos and sloths), which has been proposed to be one of the four main eutherian clades. Recently, proteomics analyses of bone collagen have recently been used to yield a molecular phylogeny for a range of mammals including the unusual 'Malagasy aardvark' shown to be most closely related to the afrotherian tenrecs, and the south American ungulates supporting their morphological asso

SUBMITTER: Buckley M 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC4634953 | biostudies-literature | 2015

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature