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-...马达加斯加境内体重超过10千克的特有动物，均未在该岛近期发生的一轮灭绝浪潮中幸存。通过对骨骼‘亚化石（subfossil）’遗存的形态学与同位素分析，我们得以重构巨型狐猴（灵长目，体重可达约160千克）、象鸟（体重可达约860千克）以及其他延续至近千年前的非凡马达加斯加巨型动物群的部分生物学与行为生态学特征。然而，这些现已灭绝物种的演化生物学仍有诸多未知之处，部分类群的系统发育关系也长期存在争议。值得庆幸的是，尽管热带与亚热带环境下DNA保存难度极大，但技术进步已使我们能够从部分马达加斯加亚化石标本中获取古DNA（ancient DNA）。本研究报道了一种已灭绝的巨型狐猴——考拉狐猴（*Megaladapis edwardsi*，体重约85千克）的核基因组序列（覆盖度约2×）。为支撑关键系统发育与演化假说的验证，我们还构建了全新的高...