Steller's sea cow genome suggests this species began going extinct before the arrival of Paleolithic humans.

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 18^th 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 mar

SUBMITTER: Sharko FS 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC8044168 | biostudies-literature | 2021 Apr

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature