This is the author accepted manuscript.Astonishingly little is known about the early history of t... more This is the author accepted manuscript.Astonishingly little is known about the early history of the chicken (Gallus gallus domesticus). To better understand their spatiotemporal spread across Eurasia and Africa, we radiocarbon dated presumed early chicken bones. The results indicate chickens were an Iron Age arrival to Europe and that there was a consistent time-lag of several centuries between their introduction to new regions and incorporation into the human diet. Welldated evidence for Britain and mainland Europe suggests chickens were initially considered exotica and buried as individuals, were gradually incorporated into human funerary rites, and only much later came to be seen as just ‘food’.Arts and Humanities Research Council (AHRC)Natural Environment Research Council (NERC)Chair of Palaeoanatomy, LMU Munic
Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America, Jan 29, 2014
Modern domestic plants and animals are subject to human-driven selection for desired phenotypic t... more Modern domestic plants and animals are subject to human-driven selection for desired phenotypic traits and behavior. Large-scale genetic studies of modern domestic populations and their wild relatives have revealed not only the genetic mechanisms underlying specific phenotypic traits, but also allowed for the identification of candidate domestication genes. Our understanding of the importance of these genes during the initial stages of the domestication process traditionally rests on the assumption that robust inferences about the past can be made on the basis of modern genetic datasets. A growing body of evidence from ancient DNA studies, however, has revealed that ancient and even historic populations often bear little resemblance to their modern counterparts. Here, we test the temporal context of selection on specific genetic loci known to differentiate modern domestic chickens from their extant wild ancestors. We extracted DNA from 80 ancient chickens excavated from 12 European ...
Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences, 2010
Genetic data from extant donkeys ( Equus asinus ) have revealed two distinct mitochondrial DNA ha... more Genetic data from extant donkeys ( Equus asinus ) have revealed two distinct mitochondrial DNA haplogroups, suggestive of two separate domestication events in northeast Africa about 5000 years ago. Without distinct phylogeographic structure in domestic donkey haplogroups and with little information on the genetic makeup of the ancestral African wild ass, however, it has been difficult to identify wild ancestors and geographical origins for the domestic mitochondrial clades. Our analysis of ancient archaeological and historic museum samples provides the first genetic information on the historic Nubian wild ass ( Equus africanus africanus ), Somali wild ass ( Equus africanus somaliensis ) and ancient donkey. The results demonstrate that the Nubian wild ass was an ancestor of the first donkey haplogroup. In contrast, the Somali wild ass has considerable mitochondrial divergence from the Nubian wild ass and domestic donkeys. These findings resolve the long-standing issue of the role of ...
1990 Sommario Contents Sommaire Roger Coque Les vicissitudes d'un mythe: la mer saharienne qu... more 1990 Sommario Contents Sommaire Roger Coque Les vicissitudes d'un mythe: la mer saharienne quaternaire —-— 7 Scritture Writings Ecritures — — — 109 Yves Gauthier Dicouverte descriptions enigmatiques dans le Grand Erg Occidental 109
Though chickens are the most numerous and ubiquitous domestic bird, their origins, the circumstan... more Though chickens are the most numerous and ubiquitous domestic bird, their origins, the circumstances of their initial association with people, and the routes along which they dispersed across the world remain controversial. In order to establish a robust spatial and temporal framework for their origins and dispersal, we assessed archaeological occurrences and the domestic status of chickens from ∼600 sites in 89 countries by combining zoogeographic, morphological, osteometric, stratigraphic, contextual, iconographic, and textual data. Our results suggest that the first unambiguous domestic chicken bones are found at Neolithic Ban Non Wat in central Thailand dated to ∼1650 to 1250 BCE, and that chickens were not domesticated in the Indian Subcontinent. Chickens did not arrive in Central China, South Asia, or Mesopotamia until the late second millennium BCE, and in Ethiopia and Mediterranean Europe by ∼800 BCE. To investigate the circumstances of their initial domestication, we correl...
Paleogenetics reveals that imported domestic horses replaced native wild ones in Transcaucasia an... more Paleogenetics reveals that imported domestic horses replaced native wild ones in Transcaucasia and Anatolia before 2000 BCE.
Taxonomic over-splitting of extinct or endangered taxa, due to an incomplete knowledge of both sk... more Taxonomic over-splitting of extinct or endangered taxa, due to an incomplete knowledge of both skeletal morphological variability and the geographical ranges of past populations, continues to confuse the link between isolated extant populations and their ancestors. This is particularly problematic with the genusEquus.To more reliably determine the evolution and phylogeographic history of the endangered Asiatic wild ass, we studied the genetic diversity and inter-relationships of both extinct and extant populations over the last 100,000 years, including samples throughout its previous range from Western Europe to Southwest and East Asia. Using 229 bp of the mitochondrial hypervariable region, an approach which allowed the inclusion of information from extremely poorly preserved ancient samples, we classify all non-African wild asses into nine clades that show a clear phylogeographic structure revealing their phylogenetic history. This study places the extinct European wild ass,E. hyd...
This is the author accepted manuscript.Astonishingly little is known about the early history of t... more This is the author accepted manuscript.Astonishingly little is known about the early history of the chicken (Gallus gallus domesticus). To better understand their spatiotemporal spread across Eurasia and Africa, we radiocarbon dated presumed early chicken bones. The results indicate chickens were an Iron Age arrival to Europe and that there was a consistent time-lag of several centuries between their introduction to new regions and incorporation into the human diet. Welldated evidence for Britain and mainland Europe suggests chickens were initially considered exotica and buried as individuals, were gradually incorporated into human funerary rites, and only much later came to be seen as just ‘food’.Arts and Humanities Research Council (AHRC)Natural Environment Research Council (NERC)Chair of Palaeoanatomy, LMU Munic
Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America, Jan 29, 2014
Modern domestic plants and animals are subject to human-driven selection for desired phenotypic t... more Modern domestic plants and animals are subject to human-driven selection for desired phenotypic traits and behavior. Large-scale genetic studies of modern domestic populations and their wild relatives have revealed not only the genetic mechanisms underlying specific phenotypic traits, but also allowed for the identification of candidate domestication genes. Our understanding of the importance of these genes during the initial stages of the domestication process traditionally rests on the assumption that robust inferences about the past can be made on the basis of modern genetic datasets. A growing body of evidence from ancient DNA studies, however, has revealed that ancient and even historic populations often bear little resemblance to their modern counterparts. Here, we test the temporal context of selection on specific genetic loci known to differentiate modern domestic chickens from their extant wild ancestors. We extracted DNA from 80 ancient chickens excavated from 12 European ...
Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences, 2010
Genetic data from extant donkeys ( Equus asinus ) have revealed two distinct mitochondrial DNA ha... more Genetic data from extant donkeys ( Equus asinus ) have revealed two distinct mitochondrial DNA haplogroups, suggestive of two separate domestication events in northeast Africa about 5000 years ago. Without distinct phylogeographic structure in domestic donkey haplogroups and with little information on the genetic makeup of the ancestral African wild ass, however, it has been difficult to identify wild ancestors and geographical origins for the domestic mitochondrial clades. Our analysis of ancient archaeological and historic museum samples provides the first genetic information on the historic Nubian wild ass ( Equus africanus africanus ), Somali wild ass ( Equus africanus somaliensis ) and ancient donkey. The results demonstrate that the Nubian wild ass was an ancestor of the first donkey haplogroup. In contrast, the Somali wild ass has considerable mitochondrial divergence from the Nubian wild ass and domestic donkeys. These findings resolve the long-standing issue of the role of ...
1990 Sommario Contents Sommaire Roger Coque Les vicissitudes d'un mythe: la mer saharienne qu... more 1990 Sommario Contents Sommaire Roger Coque Les vicissitudes d'un mythe: la mer saharienne quaternaire —-— 7 Scritture Writings Ecritures — — — 109 Yves Gauthier Dicouverte descriptions enigmatiques dans le Grand Erg Occidental 109
Though chickens are the most numerous and ubiquitous domestic bird, their origins, the circumstan... more Though chickens are the most numerous and ubiquitous domestic bird, their origins, the circumstances of their initial association with people, and the routes along which they dispersed across the world remain controversial. In order to establish a robust spatial and temporal framework for their origins and dispersal, we assessed archaeological occurrences and the domestic status of chickens from ∼600 sites in 89 countries by combining zoogeographic, morphological, osteometric, stratigraphic, contextual, iconographic, and textual data. Our results suggest that the first unambiguous domestic chicken bones are found at Neolithic Ban Non Wat in central Thailand dated to ∼1650 to 1250 BCE, and that chickens were not domesticated in the Indian Subcontinent. Chickens did not arrive in Central China, South Asia, or Mesopotamia until the late second millennium BCE, and in Ethiopia and Mediterranean Europe by ∼800 BCE. To investigate the circumstances of their initial domestication, we correl...
Paleogenetics reveals that imported domestic horses replaced native wild ones in Transcaucasia an... more Paleogenetics reveals that imported domestic horses replaced native wild ones in Transcaucasia and Anatolia before 2000 BCE.
Taxonomic over-splitting of extinct or endangered taxa, due to an incomplete knowledge of both sk... more Taxonomic over-splitting of extinct or endangered taxa, due to an incomplete knowledge of both skeletal morphological variability and the geographical ranges of past populations, continues to confuse the link between isolated extant populations and their ancestors. This is particularly problematic with the genusEquus.To more reliably determine the evolution and phylogeographic history of the endangered Asiatic wild ass, we studied the genetic diversity and inter-relationships of both extinct and extant populations over the last 100,000 years, including samples throughout its previous range from Western Europe to Southwest and East Asia. Using 229 bp of the mitochondrial hypervariable region, an approach which allowed the inclusion of information from extremely poorly preserved ancient samples, we classify all non-African wild asses into nine clades that show a clear phylogeographic structure revealing their phylogenetic history. This study places the extinct European wild ass,E. hyd...
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