TY - JOUR
T1 - Museum genomics reveals the rapid decline and extinction of Australian rodents since European settlement
AU - Roycroft, Emily
AU - MacDonald, Anna J.
AU - Moritz, Craig
AU - Moussalli, Adnan
AU - Miguez, Roberto Portela
AU - Rowe, Kevin C.
N1 - Publisher Copyright:
© 2021 National Academy of Sciences. All rights reserved.
PY - 2021/7/6
Y1 - 2021/7/6
N2 - Australia has the highest historically recorded rate of mammalian extinction in the world, with 34 terrestrial species declared extinct since European colonization in 1788. Among Australian mammals, rodents have been the most severely affected by these recent extinctions; however, given a sparse historical record, the scale and timing of their decline remain unresolved. Using museum specimens up to 184 y old, we generate genomic-scale data from across the entire assemblage of Australian hydromyine rodents (i.e., eight extinct species and their 42 living relatives). We reconstruct a phylogenomic tree for these species spanning ∼5.2 million years, revealing a cumulative total of 10 million years (>10%) of unique evolutionary history lost to extinction within the past ∼150 y. We find no evidence for reduced genetic diversity in extinct species just prior to or during decline, indicating that their extinction was extremely rapid. This suggests that populations of extinct Australian rodents were large prior to European colonization, and that genetic diversity does not necessarily protect species from catastrophic extinction. In addition, comparative analyses suggest that body size and biome interact to predict extinction and decline, with larger species more likely to go extinct. Finally, we taxonomically resurrect a species from extinction, Gould’s mouse (Pseudomys gouldii Waterhouse, 1839), which survives as an island population in Shark Bay, Western Australia (currently classified as Pseudomys fieldi Waite, 1896). With unprecedented sampling across a radiation of extinct and living species, we unlock a previously inaccessible historical perspective on extinction in Australia. Our results highlight the capacity of collections-based research to inform conservation and management of persisting species.
AB - Australia has the highest historically recorded rate of mammalian extinction in the world, with 34 terrestrial species declared extinct since European colonization in 1788. Among Australian mammals, rodents have been the most severely affected by these recent extinctions; however, given a sparse historical record, the scale and timing of their decline remain unresolved. Using museum specimens up to 184 y old, we generate genomic-scale data from across the entire assemblage of Australian hydromyine rodents (i.e., eight extinct species and their 42 living relatives). We reconstruct a phylogenomic tree for these species spanning ∼5.2 million years, revealing a cumulative total of 10 million years (>10%) of unique evolutionary history lost to extinction within the past ∼150 y. We find no evidence for reduced genetic diversity in extinct species just prior to or during decline, indicating that their extinction was extremely rapid. This suggests that populations of extinct Australian rodents were large prior to European colonization, and that genetic diversity does not necessarily protect species from catastrophic extinction. In addition, comparative analyses suggest that body size and biome interact to predict extinction and decline, with larger species more likely to go extinct. Finally, we taxonomically resurrect a species from extinction, Gould’s mouse (Pseudomys gouldii Waterhouse, 1839), which survives as an island population in Shark Bay, Western Australia (currently classified as Pseudomys fieldi Waite, 1896). With unprecedented sampling across a radiation of extinct and living species, we unlock a previously inaccessible historical perspective on extinction in Australia. Our results highlight the capacity of collections-based research to inform conservation and management of persisting species.
KW - Biodiversity
KW - Conservation
KW - Exon capture
KW - Phylogenomics
KW - Phylogeny
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85108909452&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1073/pnas.2021390118
DO - 10.1073/pnas.2021390118
M3 - Article
SN - 0027-8424
VL - 118
JO - Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America
JF - Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America
IS - 27
M1 - e2021390118
ER -