Citation

New mitochondrial data demonstrating a close relationship between Mammuthus primigenius (Blumenbach, 1799) and Loxodonta africana (Blumenbach, 1797).
Debruyne Régis.
in ‘The world of elephants’, Proceedings of the 1st international Congress, 2001. Consiglio Nazionale delle Ricerche, Rome, pp.630-632.

Abstract

The question of the phylogenetical relationships between recent Elephantidae has been raised on morphological but also molecular grounds. Mitochondrial data (cytochrome b gene particularly) either support or question the classical scheme which associates Mammuthus primigenius with the Indian elephant, Elephas maximus Linné 1758. Recent studies depict a closer relationship between mammoth and African elephant, Loxodonta africana. We report the partial sequencing of two mitochondrial markers from a 49,000 years old Siberian mammoth. The comparison of its sequence with 10 other mammoths and with African (both bush and forest forms) and Asian elephants gives weight to this hypothesis. However, a previous study of the same specimen (Yang et al. 1996) produced a highly divergent sequence that clusters with Indian elephants. The accuracy of the two alternative sequences is evaluated and leads us to the conclusion that the woolly mammoths form the monophyletic sister-group of African elephants on molecular grounds.

Original material

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