Diversity of mitochondrial D-loop haplotypes from ancient Thracian horses in Bulgaria.

The domestication of the horse began possibly more than 5000 years ago in the western part of the Eurasian steppe, and according to the leading hypothesis, horses first spread from the Steppe toward the region of the Thracian culture, starting in the second half of the 2nd millennium BCE and flourished from the fifth to first centuries BCE, mainly located in present-day Bulgaria. We analyzed 17 horse bone remains excavated from Thracian archaeological sites (fourth to first centuries BCE) in Bulgaria and successfully identified 17 sequences representing 14 different haplotypes of the mitochondrial D-loop. Compared with the mtDNA haplotypes of modern horses around the world, ancient Thracian horses in Bulgaria are thought to be more closely related to modern horses of Southern Europe and less related to those of Central Asia. In addition, the haplotypes we obtained represented 11 previously reported modern horse mtDNA haplogroups: A, B, D, E, G, H, I, L, N, P, and Q. All the haplogroups contain modern and regionally predominant haplotypes occurring in Europe, the Middle East, and Central Asia. Our results indicate that Thracian horses in Bulgaria have had relatively high genetic diversity and are closely related to modern horse breeds.

New data on the evolutionary history of the European bison (Bison bonasus) based on subfossil remains from Southeastern Europe.

The origin and evolutionary history of the European bison Bison bonasus (wisent) have become clearer after several morphological, genomic, and paleogenomic studies in the last few years, but these paleogenomic studies have raised new questions about the evolution of the species. Here, we present additional information about the population diversity of the species based on the analysis of new subfossil Holocene remains from the Balkan Peninsula. Seven ancient samples excavated from caves in Western Stara Planina in Bulgaria were investigated by mitochondrial D-loop (HVR1) sequence analysis. The samples were dated to 3,800 years BP by radiocarbon analysis. Additionally, a phylogenetic analysis was performed to investigate the genetic relationship among the investigated samples and all mitochondrial DNA sequences from the genus Bison available in GenBank. The results clustered with the sequences from the extinct Holocene South-Eastern (Balkan) wisent to the fossil Alpine population from France, Austria, and Switzerland, but not with those from the recent Central European (North Sea) one and the now extinct Caucasian population. In conclusion, these data indicate that the Balkan wisent that existed in historical time represented a relict and probably an isolated population of the Late Pleistocene-Holocene South-Western mountainous population of the wisent.

Messinian age and savannah environment of the possible hominin Graecopithecus from Europe.

Dating fossil hominids and reconstructing their environments is critically important for understanding human evolution. Here we date the potentially oldest hominin, Graecopithecus freybergi from Europe and constrain the environmental conditions under which it thrived. For the Graecopithecus-bearing Pikermi Formation of Attica/Greece, a saline aeolian dust deposit of North African (Sahara) provenance, we obtain an age of 7.37-7.11 Ma, which is coeval with a dramatic cooling in the Mediterranean region at the Tortonian-Messinian transition. Palaeobotanic proxies demonstrate C4-grass dominated wooded grassland-to-woodland habitats of a savannah biome for the Pikermi Formation. Faunal turnover at the Tortonian-Messinian transition led to the spread of new mammalian taxa along with Graecopithecus into Europe. The type mandible of G. freybergi from Pyrgos (7.175 Ma) and the single tooth (7.24 Ma) from Azmaka (Bulgaria) represent the first hominids of Messinian age from continental Europe. Our results suggest that major splits in the hominid family occurred outside Africa.

On Mesopithecus habitat: Insights from late Miocene fossil vertebrate localities of Bulgaria.

The aim of this study is to describe the environments where the cercopithecid Mesopithecus was found during latest Miocene in Europe. For this purpose, we investigate the paleoecology of the herbivorous ungulate mesofauna of three very rich late Miocene fossil localities from southwestern Bulgaria: Hadjidimovo, Kalimantsi and Strumyani. While Mesopithecus has been found in the two first localities, no primate remains have yet been identified in Strumyani. Comparison between localities with and without primates using the herbivore mesofauna allows the cross-corroboration of paleoenvironmental conditions where this primate did and did not live. A multi-parameter statistical approach involving 117 equid and 345 bovid fossil dental and postcranial (phalanges, metapodia, astragali) remains from these three localities provides species to generic-level diet and locomotor habit information in order to characterize the environment in which Mesopithecus evolved. The analysis of dental mesowear indicates that the bovids were mainly mixed feeders, while coeval equids were more engaged in grazing. Meanwhile, postcranial remains show that the ungulate species from Hadjidimovo and Kalimantsi evolved in dry environments with a continuum of habitats ranging from slightly wooded areas to relatively open landscapes, whereas the Mesopithecus-free Strumyani locality was in comparison reflecting a rather contrasted mosaic of environments with predominant open and some more closed and wet areas. Environments in which Mesopithecus is known during the late Miocene were not contrasted landscapes combining open grassy areas and dense forested patches, but instead rather restricted to slightly wooded and homogeneous landscapes including a developed grassy herbaceous layer.