The difference between trivial and scientific names: There were never any true cheetahs in North America

S. Faurby; L. Werdelin; J.-C. Svenning

doi:10.1186/s13059-016-0943-y

The difference between trivial and scientific names: There were never any true cheetahs in North America

S. Faurby^*, L. Werdelin, J.-C. Svenning

^*Corresponding author for this work

Department of Chemistry and Bioscience

Research output: Contribution to journal › Comment/debate › Research › peer-review

2 Citations (Scopus)

Abstract

Dobrynin et al. (Genome Biol 16:277, 2015) recently published the complete genome of the cheetah (Acinonyx jubatus) and provided an exhaustive set of analyses supporting the famously low genetic variation in the species, known for several decades. Their genetic analyses represent state-of-the-art and we do not criticize them. However, their interpretation of the results is inconsistent with current knowledge of cheetah evolution. Dobrynin et al. suggest that the causes of the two inferred bottlenecks at 100,000 and 10,000 years ago were immigration by cheetahs from North America and end-Pleistocene megafauna extinction, respectively, but the first explanation is impossible and the second implausible.

Original language	English
Article number	89
Journal	Genome Biology
Volume	17
Issue number	1
Number of pages	2
ISSN	1474-7596
DOIs	https://doi.org/10.1186/s13059-016-0943-y
Publication status	Published - 5 May 2016

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title = "The difference between trivial and scientific names: There were never any true cheetahs in North America",

abstract = "Dobrynin et al. (Genome Biol 16:277, 2015) recently published the complete genome of the cheetah (Acinonyx jubatus) and provided an exhaustive set of analyses supporting the famously low genetic variation in the species, known for several decades. Their genetic analyses represent state-of-the-art and we do not criticize them. However, their interpretation of the results is inconsistent with current knowledge of cheetah evolution. Dobrynin et al. suggest that the causes of the two inferred bottlenecks at 100,000 and 10,000 years ago were immigration by cheetahs from North America and end-Pleistocene megafauna extinction, respectively, but the first explanation is impossible and the second implausible.",

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AB - Dobrynin et al. (Genome Biol 16:277, 2015) recently published the complete genome of the cheetah (Acinonyx jubatus) and provided an exhaustive set of analyses supporting the famously low genetic variation in the species, known for several decades. Their genetic analyses represent state-of-the-art and we do not criticize them. However, their interpretation of the results is inconsistent with current knowledge of cheetah evolution. Dobrynin et al. suggest that the causes of the two inferred bottlenecks at 100,000 and 10,000 years ago were immigration by cheetahs from North America and end-Pleistocene megafauna extinction, respectively, but the first explanation is impossible and the second implausible.

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The difference between trivial and scientific names: There were never any true cheetahs in North America

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