RESUMO
The two living species of bison (European and American) are among the few terrestrial megafauna to have survived the late Pleistocene extinctions. Despite the extensive bovid fossil record in Eurasia, the evolutionary history of the European bison (or wisent, Bison bonasus) before the Holocene (<11.7 thousand years ago (kya)) remains a mystery. We use complete ancient mitochondrial genomes and genome-wide nuclear DNA surveys to reveal that the wisent is the product of hybridization between the extinct steppe bison (Bison priscus) and ancestors of modern cattle (aurochs, Bos primigenius) before 120 kya, and contains up to 10% aurochs genomic ancestry. Although undetected within the fossil record, ancestors of the wisent have alternated ecological dominance with steppe bison in association with major environmental shifts since at least 55 kya. Early cave artists recorded distinct morphological forms consistent with these replacement events, around the Last Glacial Maximum (LGM, â¼21-18 kya).
Assuntos
Bison/genética , Cavernas , DNA Antigo/química , Fósseis , Pinturas , Animais , Bison/classificação , Bovinos , Núcleo Celular/genética , DNA Mitocondrial/química , DNA Mitocondrial/genética , Europa (Continente) , Evolução Molecular , Genoma Mitocondrial/genética , Filogenia , Análise de Sequência de DNARESUMO
In 2001, a portion of human frontal bone was discovered in sediments extracted from the bottom of the North Sea, 15km off the coast of the Netherlands. The extraction zone is located in the so-called Zeeland Ridges area located at 51 degrees 40' northern latitude and 3 degrees 20' eastern longitude. The specimen was dredged up from sediments containing Late Pleistocene faunal remains and Middle Palaeolithic artefacts, including well-finished small handaxes and Levallois flakes. The details of the supraorbital morphology, as well as the quantitative assessment of the shape of the external surface of the squama using traditional and 3D geometric morphometrics, unambiguously assign the Zeeland Ridges frontal bone to Homo neanderthalensis. Carbon and nitrogen isotopic analysis indicate that the Zeeland Ridges hominin, like other Neandertals, was highly carnivorous and does not show evidence for the consumption of aquatic foods. A lesion on the outer table and diploic layer of the bone in the area of the supratoral sulcus can be interpreted as the result of an intradiploic epidermoid cyst, a type of neoplasm diagnosed for the first time in Neandertal remains. So far, the Zeeland Ridges Neandertal is the first Pleistocene fossil hominin found under seawater and the first recorded in the Netherlands.
