A new genus of horse from Pleistocene North America

• Published in: eLife Vol. 6
• Main Authors: Heintzman, Peter D, Zazula, Grant D, MacPhee, Ross DE, Scott, Eric, Cahill, James A, McHorse, Brianna K, Kapp, Joshua D, Stiller, Mathias, Wooller, Matthew J, Orlando, Ludovic, Southon, John, Froese, Duane G, Shapiro, Beth
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: England eLife Science Publications, Ltd 28.11.2017; eLife Sciences Publications Ltd; eLife Sciences Publications; eLife Sciences Publications, Ltd
• Subjects: Analysis; ancient DNA; Animals; Biometry; Deoxyribonucleic acid; DNA; DNA - chemistry; DNA - genetics; DNA damage; Endangered & extinct species; Equidae; Evolution (Biology); Evolutionary biology; Extinction; Fossils; Genetic research; Genetics and Genomics; Genomes; Genomics; Genotype; Geofag: 450; Geosciences: 450; Haringtonhippus francisci; Horses; Horses - anatomy & histology; Horses - classification; Horses - genetics; Macroevolution; Mass extinction; Matematikk og naturvitenskap: 400; Mathematics and natural scienses: 400; Medical research; Megafauna; Mitochondria; Mitochondrial DNA; Morphology; morphometrics; Museums; New genera; North America; Phenotype; Phylogenetics; radiocarbon dating; Scientists; Sequence Analysis, DNA; Species extinction; stilt-legged equids; Stratigrafi og paleontologi: 461; Stratigraphy and palaeontology: 461; Systematic zoology: 487; systematics; Systematisk zoologi: 487; Taxonomy; Textbooks; VDP; Zoogeografi: 486; Zoogeography: 486; Zoological anatomy: 481; Zoologisk anatomi: 481; Zoologiske og botaniske fag: 480; Zoology and botany: 480; Canada; Yukon Territory; New Mexico; North America; Texas; Nevada; United States > US; California; evolutionary biology; genomics; ancient DNA; systematics; morphometrics; radiocarbon dating; Haringtonhippus francisci; stilt-legged equids
• ISSN: 2050-084X; 2050-084X
• DOI: 10.7554/eLife.29944

The extinct 'New World stilt-legged', or NWSL, equids constitute a perplexing group of Pleistocene horses endemic to North America. Their slender distal limb bones resemble those of Asiatic asses, such as the Persian onager. Previous palaeogenetic studies, however, have suggested a closer relationship to caballine horses than to Asiatic asses. Here, we report complete mitochondrial and partial nuclear genomes from NWSL equids from across their geographic range. Although multiple NWSL equid species have been named, our palaeogenomic and morphometric analyses support the idea that there was only a single species of middle to late Pleistocene NWSL equid, and demonstrate that it falls outside of crown group . We therefore propose a new genus, , for the sole species . Our combined genomic and phenomic approach to resolving the systematics of extinct megafauna will allow for an improved understanding of the full extent of the terminal Pleistocene extinction event.