A High‐Throughput Ancient DNA Extraction Method for Large‐Scale Sample Screening

Large-scale DNA screening of palaeontological and archaeological collections remains a limiting and costly factor for ancient DNA studies. Several DNA extraction protocols are routinely used in ancient DNA laboratories and have even been automated on robotic platforms. Robots offer a solution for high-throughput screening but the costs, as well as necessity for trained technicians and engineers, can be prohibitive for some laboratories. Here, we present a high-throughput alternative to robot-based ancient DNA extraction using a 96-column plate. When compared to routine single MinElute columns, we retrieved highly similar endogenous DNA contents, an important metric in ancient DNA screening. Mitogenomes with a coverage depth greater than 0.1× could be generated and allowed for taxonomic assignment. However, average fragment lengths, DNA damage and library complexities significantly differed between methods but these differences became nonsignificant after modification of our library purification protocol. Our high-throughput extraction method allows generation of 96 extracts within approximately 4 hours of laboratory work while bringing the cost down by ~39% compared to using single columns. Additionally, we formally demonstrate that the addition of Tween-20 during the elution step results in higher complexity libraries, thereby enabling higher genome coverage for the same sequencing effort

When did spotted hyenas become social? Evidence from fossil endocasts

The spotted hyena, Crocuta crocuta, is a highly social carnivore with several unique traits showing advanced social behavior. Studies of the brain of living spotted hyenas show that the anterior cerebrum is enlarged, a feature linked to sociality. It is not known, however, when sociality evolved in spotted hyenas, and its evolutionary context is therefore unknown. This is important to understand due to the apparent negative fitness effects of some spotted hyena traits. Studies of extinct species of Crocuta have shown that these do not share the large anterior cerebrum of the extant species. We use computed tomography (CT) scanning to study the endocranium of a >350,000-year-old spotted hyena from Megenta, Ethiopia and compare it to a sample of modern specimens representing the four living Hyaenidae species. We also compared our results to published fossil hyena endocrania. We found that the brain of the Ethiopian fossil is indistinguishable from that of the extant species and different from all other fossil and extant hyena brains. This places a minimum age of 350,000 years on the evolution of spotted hyena sociality and eliminates factors such as selective pressure from early Homo sapiens as potential drivers of sociality

In-Situ Organic and Inorganic TOF-SIMS Mapping Reveals Biomarker Preservation in Carbonate Rather Than Phosphate Minerals

Here we have applied ToF-SIMS and Raman microspectroscopy to a phosphatic coprolite (fossilised faecal matter) preserved within an iron carbonate concretion from the Mazon Creek lagerstätte (306 Ma), of which the biomarker composition has been previously characterised using GC-MS. Abundant cholesteroid biomarkers were determined to represent dietary input from animals. This study aimed to spatially resolve these cholesteroid biomarkers within the coprolite specimen. The steroid 5a,14a,17a(H) 20R cholestane was targeted for secondary ion mapping due to its abundance in the GC-MS analyses of the fossil (Tripp et al., 2022). The sterane biomarker was shown to be intimately associated with locally precipitated iron carbonate and some minor amounts of pyrite, and not associated with the phosphatised tissues. Importantly, phosphatisation is often associated with three-dimensional soft tissue preservation during earliest diagenesis, yet here does not show association with endogenous lipid biomarkers. This suggests that the factors facilitating lipid preservation in geological samples may differ to those controlling soft tissue fossilisation

Combining soft-bodied and three-dimensional fossils to reveal evolutionary modifications in early lingulellotretid brachiopods

Living lingulide brachiopods are traditionally recognised as representatives of evolutionary conservatism, showing little change in general-morphology from their Cambrian ancestors. However, less attention has been given to their anatomical and ontogenetic modifications since their initial appearance. Among these, lingulellotretids are unique, characterized by their typical elongate pedicle foramen and large pseudointerarea. This study describes exquisitely preserved soft-tissue and phosphatic shells of Lingulellotreta from Cambrian Series 2 deposits in China and Kazakhstan. Biomineralized novelties in Lingulellotreta, including elongate pseudointerarea forming a pouch-like visceral cavity and columnar shell architecture, probably were evolutionarily modified from the unmineralized tubular ancestor Yuganotheca during the Cambrian Explosion. Lingulellotretids, however, faced extinction in the Early Ordovician, exemplifying a short-lived evolutionary experiment with a tubular body form in early brachiopods. Since the early Cambrian, lingulide brachiopods have exhibited a long-term evolutionary trend marked by the reduction of pseudointerarea, reflecting a convergence toward a more efficient body plan that ultimately became dominant in later lineages. The intensification of skeletal defences and the increasing demands of filter feeding within benthic communities likely drove these evolutionary modifications and ecological adjustments, culminating in the development of the distinctive, persistent tongue-shaped body of linguloid brachiopods during the Great Ordovician Biodiversification Event

Report of the Bryophyte Specialist Group 2024-2025 : In: IUCN SSC and Secretariat. Annual Report of the IUCN Species Survival Commission and Secretariat 2024-2025

The mission of the IUCN SSC Bryophyte Specialist Group (BSG) is to promote the exploration of bryological diversity acrossall geographic scales and its long-term conservatio

Museomics unravels cryptic diversity in an endemic group of New Guinean songbirds

Deciphering cryptic diversity can have substantial implications for ourunderstanding of evolutionary processes and species conservation. Birdsare arguably among the best studied organismal groups, but even in avianclades there are some genera that have not been thoroughly surveyed.This is particularly true for taxa that occur in hyperdiverse biogeographicregions. In this study, we focus on an endemic group of New Guineanbirds, the jewel-babblers (genus: Ptilorrhoa), and study the diversificationhistory of all known taxa. We assemble a de novo genome using linkedread sequencing and genomic data for 40 historical specimens. Bothphylogenomic and population-genomic analyses strongly support therecovery of a cryptic species and shed new light on the diversificationhistory of this group. The blue jewel-babbler (Ptilorrhoa caerulescens) is aparaphyletic species complex and P. c. nigricrissus is more closely relatedto the phenotypically distinct and sexually dimorphic P. geislerorum, thanto other P. caerulescens subspecies. These findings demonstrate that evenin well-studied groups such as birds, cryptic diversity can still be aprevalent reality. Moreover, by deciphering cryptic diversity, we shed newlight on the processes driving speciation within Ptilorrhoa and the need topotentially revise the taxonomic status of all subspecie

Frequent Hybridisation Between Parapatric Lekking Bird‐of‐Paradise Species

Hybridisation is known to occur between a wide range of taxa, including species for which strong sexual selection has led to markedly different sexual phenotypes and lek-mating behaviours. To what extent occasional hybridisation can overcome the reproductive barriers in such systems and, for example, lead to the establishment of hybrid zones is poorly known. In this study, we address this question by focusing on one of the most well-known avian radiations in which sexual selection has resulted in an extraordinary assemblage of phenotypic diversity and lek-mating behaviours: the birds-of-paradise (Paradisaeidae). We quantify the genome-wide distribution of introgression and find multiple signals of recent and historical gene flow between and within two genera of birds-of-paradise, Astrapia and Paradigalla. In addition, we present the first empirical genomic indication of a putative hybrid zone between two lekking bird-of-paradise species that differ substantially in their sexually selected traits and behaviours. Our findings are consistent with the idea that behavioural and phenotypic traits may constitute weaker pre- and post-zygotic barriers to gene flow than generally thought in lek-mating species