Enamel proteins may resolve phylogenetic relationships for the late Miocene bovid genus Maremmia

Inferring phylogenetic relationships among taxa represents a challenge for many so far extinct species. However, during the past years, new advances in paleoproteomics enabled the detection of the presence of phylogenetically informative proteins, within fossil enamel. The record of ancient proteins could shed light on unresolved or poorly understood relationships such as the origin of the endemic bovid Maremmia Hürzeler, 1983. Maremmia is a typical element of the pre-Messinian Oreopithecus Zone faunas (OZF) from the Tusco-Sardinian archipelago (Bernor et al., 2001). The genus is represented by two species, M. haupti and Maremmia lorenzi (Rook, 2016). The origin of the genus and its phylogenetical relationships with other Bovidae were previously hypothesized only on morphological analysis (Hürzeler, 1983; Thomas, 1984; Abbazzi et al., 2008). Palaeoproteomics offers the opportunity to clarify questions that morphological analysis cannot. Proteins survive longer and in larger quantities than ancient DNA (Cappellini et al., 2014). Obtaining proteins from paleontological samples may give the possibility of resolving disputes related to the phylogeny of this genus. We report here the preliminary results of a test analysis performed on Maremmia specimens. For the first time, we tested the presence of fossil proteins in Late Miocene bovids from a set of localities in Tuscany and Sardinia, to investigate the relationships between Maremmia and other bovids. Protein recovery was limited to short peptide sequences, belonging to amelogenin and enamelin groups. Despite recovered proteins do not allow making phylogenetical reconstruction they still possess valuable information and shed the light on the mechanism of preservation of ancient proteins.