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

ABSTRACT: 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 estim

SUBMITTER: Hu J 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC9326283 | biostudies-literature | 2022 Jul

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature