The mastodon mitochondrial genome: a mammoth accomplishment.

The mitochondrial genome of an American mastodon was recently sequenced and used to root a phylogenetic analysis that included full mitochondrial genome sequences from woolly mammoths and the two living elephant genera. The study definitively established that mammoth and Asian elephant mitochondrial DNA lineages are more closely related than either is to African elephants. However, it also suggests that a complex evolutionary picture could ultimately emerge and points to similarities between the early evolution of the Elephantidae and that of the gorilla-human-chimpanzee clade.