Evolutionary and phylogenetic insights from a nuclear genome sequence of the extinct, giant subfossil koala lemur Megaladapis edwardsi

No endemic Madagascar animal with body mass >10 kg survived a relatively recent wave of extinction on the island. From morphological and isotopic analyses of skeletal ‘subfossil’ remains we can reconstruct some of the biology and behavioral ecology of giant lemurs (primates; up to ~160 kg), elephant birds (up to ~860 kg), and other extraordinary Malagasy megafauna that survived well into the past millennium. Yet much about the evolutionary biology of these now extinct species remains unknown, along with persistent phylogenetic uncertainty in some cases. Thankfully, despite the challenges of DNA preservation in tropical and sub-tropical environments, technical advances have enabled the recovery of ancient DNA from some Malagasy subfossil specimens. Here we present a nuclear genome sequence (~2X coverage) for one of the largest extinct lemurs, the koala lemur Megaladapis edwardsi (~85kg). To support the testing of key phylogenetic and evolutionary hypotheses we also generated new high-...