DOI: 10.5061/dryad.2dr33
title: Data from: Ancient DNA from the extinct South American giant glyptodont Doedicurus sp. (Xenarthra: Glyptodontidae) reveals that glyptodonts evolved from Eocene armadillos

description: Glyptodonts were giant (some of them up to ~2400 kg), heavily armoured
 relatives of living armadillos, which became extinct during the Late
 Pleistocene/early Holocene alongside much of the South American megafauna.
 Although glyptodonts were an important component of Cenozoic South
 American faunas, their early evolution and phylogenetic affinities within
 the order Cingulata (armoured New World placental mammals) remain
 controversial. In this study, we used hybridization enrichment and
 high-throughput sequencing to obtain a partial mitochondrial genome from
 Doedicurus sp., the largest (1.5 m tall, and 4 m long) and one of the last
 surviving glyptodonts. Our molecular phylogenetic analyses revealed that
 glyptodonts fall within the diversity of living armadillos. Reanalysis of
 morphological data using a molecular ‘backbone constraint’ revealed
 several morphological characters that supported a close relationship
 between glyptodonts and the tiny extant fairy armadillos (Chlamyphorinae).
 This is surprising as these taxa are among the most derived cingulates:
 glyptodonts were generally large-bodied and heavily armoured, while the
 fairy armadillos are tiny (~9–17 cm) and adapted for burrowing.
 Calibration of our phylogeny with the first appearance of glyptodonts in
 the Eocene resulted in a more precise timeline for xenarthran evolution.
 The osteological novelties of glyptodonts and their specialization for
 grazing appear to have evolved rapidly during the Late Eocene to Early
 Miocene, coincident with global temperature decreases and a shift from wet
 closed forest towards drier open woodland and grassland across much of
 South America. This environmental change may have driven the evolution of
 glyptodonts, culminating in the bizarre giant forms of the Pleistocene.
description: BEAST_filesBEAST files, including input .xml and final maximum clade credibility tree.RAxML_filesRAxML files, including input alignment & partition file and final tree.PartitionFinder_filesInput & output from PartitionFinder analyses.MrBayes_filesMrBayes files, including input .nex and final tree.PAUP_filesPAUP* files, including input .nex and tree files.Doedicurus_sp._SeqData_Filtered_Collapsed.fastqFASTQ file containing filtered, de-mulitplexed, and collapsed MiSeq (Illumina) sequencing reads corresponding to the Doedicurus sp. enriched genomic library. See main publication for full details on data processing.Zaedyus_pichiy_SeqData_Filtered_Collapsed.fastqFASTQ file containing filtered, de-mulitplexed, and collapsed MiSeq (Illumina) sequencing reads corresponding to the Zaedyus pichiy enriched genomic library. See main publication for full details on data processing.Tolypeutes_matacus_SeqData_Filtered_Collapsed.fastqFASTQ file containing filtered, de-mulitplexed, and collapsed MiSeq (Illumina) sequencing reads corresponding to the Tolypeutes matacus enriched genomic library. See main publication for full details on data processing.Chaetophractus_villosus_SeqData_Filtered_Collapsed.fastqFASTQ file containing filtered, de-mulitplexed, and collapsed MiSeq (Illumina) sequencing reads corresponding to the Chaetophractus villosus enriched genomic library. See main publication for full details on data processing.NGS_pipeline_scriptsScripts for analysis of high-throughput sequencing data.