{
  "id": 12604054,
  "title": "Ancient mitogenomes reveal unexpected diversity in Madagascar's extinct hippopotamuses",
  "url": "https://urgent.news/2026/10/07/ancient-mitogenomes-reveal-unexpected-diversity-in-madagascars",
  "topic": "science",
  "section": "Science",
  "published": "2026-10-07T00:00:00.000Z",
  "source": {
    "name": "bioRxiv",
    "slug": "biorxiv",
    "url": "https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.64898/2026.10.02.756093v1?rss=1"
  },
  "original_language": "en",
  "account": null,
  "summary": "Madagascar's extinct hippopotamuses were a distinctive component of the island's recently lost megafauna, yet their origins, diversification history, and taxonomy have remained unresolved. Here, we recover the first ancient mitochondrial genomes from Malagasy hippopotamuses, obtaining phylogenetic data from 37 subfossil specimens across seven localities and all three named species, and integrate…",
  "key_points": [],
  "editors_take": null,
  "illustration": null,
  "coverage": {
    "outlets": 1,
    "also_reported_by": []
  },
  "ai_generated": true,
  "disclaimer": "Summaries, key points and the editor’s take are written by software from other outlets’ reporting and may contain errors — always check the linked original."
}