Metagenomic analysis of coprolites from three late Late Pleistocene megaherbivores from the Southwestern United States.

Shotgun sequencing was performed on ancient DNA (aDNA) extracted from coprolites of the Columbian mammoth (Mammuthus Columbi), Shasta ground sloth (Nothrotheriops shastensis) and paleontological bison (Bison sp.) collected from caves on the Colorado Plateau, Southwestern USA. Coprolite taxa were then classified and compared to modern fecal specimens from the African savannah elephant (Loxodonta africana), the brown-throated sloth (Bradypus variegatus) and the modern bison (Bison bison). Both paleontological and modern bison fecal bacterial communities were also compared to those of progressively dried cattle feces, published by Wong et al. (2016), to determine whether endogenous DNA from coprolites had a microbiome signal skewed towards aerobic microorganisms typical of desiccated fecal matter.