Part of the genetic material of a small extinct mammal has been recovered and the new data, the result of an Italian study published in the journal Scientific Reports , help rewrite a page of mammalian evolution. The analyzed remains date back to 7,500 years ago and were found in Sardinia, in the Cabaddaris cave, in the Supramonte of Orgosolo and belong to the Sardinian prolagus, (Prolagus sardus), an extinct species once widespread in Sardinia and Corsica.
Coordinated by the University of Bologna, the research was conducted with the University of Cagliari, the Experimental Zooprophylactic Institute of the Venezie and the Severtsov Institute of Ecology and Evolution of the Russian Academy of Sciences.
Coordinated by Luca Fontanesi, of the University of Bologna, the researchers recovered the mitochondrial DNA of the ancient mammal, i.e. the DNA that is not found in the nucleus and is inherited only through the mother.
"In addition to genetic analyses, the find was dated thanks to the C14 technique, which placed it around 7500 years ago, in the Neolithic period", observes the first author of the article, Joe Utzeri, of the University of Bologna. The fact that the fossils of this mammal are abundant in Sardinia suggests, continues the researcher, that this species was prey to various carnivores and birds, but also to humans, as evidenced by the burnt remains collected in various archaeological sites.
The reasons for the extinction are not clear, but it is certain that this species was present in Sardinia until the Iron Age and in Corsica perhaps until the Roman era. Genetic analysis has made it possible to rewrite the history of the evolution of the Sardinian prolagus, so far much debated, attributing the genus Prolagus to an independent group, similar to the family Ochotonidae. For Elisabetta Cilli, of the University of Bologna and second author of the article, «these analyzes provide a unique expedient to retrieve and study genetic changes over time and observe evolutionary and ecological processes in real time. In this way, ancient DNA, a kind of time capsule, has revolutionized the understanding of important events of the past with unprecedented resolution, providing new opportunities to answer questions that we could not have solved with other approaches.
(Unioneonline)