0000000000082280
AUTHOR
Jean-denis Vigne
showing 11 related works from this author
Environment and excavation: Pre-lab impacts on ancient DNA analyses
2008
Ancient DNA (aDNA) analyses enjoy an increasing role in palaeontological, archaeological and archaeozoological research. The limiting factor for aDNA studies is the degree of DNA preservation. Our study on 291 prehistoric cattle remains from Europe, the Near East and North Africa revealed that DNA preservation is mainly influenced by geographic and climatic conditions. Especially in hot climates, the preservation of sample material is generally low. We observed that these specimens are prone to further degradation and contamination during and after excavation. We give a description of the main caveats and a short guideline for adequate sample handling in order to facilitate the cooperation …
Y-SNPs Do Not Indicate Hybridisation between European Aurochs and Domestic Cattle
2008
BackgroundPrevious genetic studies of modern and ancient mitochondrial DNA have confirmed the Near Eastern origin of early European domestic cattle. However, these studies were not able to test whether hybridisation with male aurochs occurred post-domestication. To address this issue, Götherström and colleagues (2005) investigated the frequencies of two Y-chromosomal haplotypes in extant bulls. They found a significant influence of wild aurochs males on domestic populations thus challenging the common view on early domestication and Neolithic stock-rearing. To test their hypothesis, we applied these Y-markers on Neolithic bone specimens from various European archaeological sites.Methods and…
Early cave art and ancient DNA record the origin of European bison
2016
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 re…
Temperature monitoring in archaeological animal bone samples in the Near East arid area, before, during and after excavation
2008
Summary In order to estimate experimentally the intensity and amplitude of thermal shocks during and after excavation, we monitored temperatures of archaeological bones on the field at three Syrian sites of the arid steppe, Qaramel, Dja'de and Aswad. Water cleaning and sun drying appear to be the most damaging steps, with temperature variations of ca. 11,000 °C/h and 84 °C/h, respectively. Ancient DNA (aDNA) bone samples kept between −7 and +12 °C from their extraction to the lab suffered much lower thermal variations (6 °C/h). Estimation of the temperature variations at different depths in the soil suggests that aDNA has suffered negative thermal conditions shortly after burial and again d…
Correction for Frantz et al., Ancient pigs reveal a near-complete genomic turnover following their introduction to Europe
2020
Significance Archaeological evidence indicates that domestic pigs arrived in Europe, alongside farmers from the Near East ∼8,500 y ago, yet mitochondrial genomes of modern European pigs are derived from European wild boars. To address this conundrum, we obtained mitochondrial and nuclear data from modern and ancient Near Eastern and European pigs. Our analyses indicate that, aside from a coat color gene, most Near Eastern ancestry in the genomes of European domestic pigs disappeared over 3,000 y as a result of interbreeding with local wild boars. This implies that pigs were not domesticated independently in Europe, yet the first 2,500 y of human-mediated selection applied by Near Eastern Ne…
Ancient pigs reveal a near-complete genomic turnover following their introduction to Europe
2019
International audience; Archaeological evidence indicates that pig domestication had begun by ∼10,500 y before the present (BP) in the Near East, and mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) suggests that pigs arrived in Europe alongside farmers ∼8,500 y BP. A few thousand years after the introduction of Near Eastern pigs into Europe, however, their characteristic mtDNA signature disappeared and was replaced by haplotypes associated with European wild boars. This turnover could be accounted for by substantial gene flow from local Euro-pean wild boars, although it is also possible that European wild boars were domesticated independently without any genetic contribution from the Near East. To test these hyp…
Detecting the T1 cattle haplogroup in the Iberian Peninsula from Neolithic to medieval times: new clues to continuous cattle migration through time
2015
Abstract The spread of domestic animals through time is one of the topics studied by archaeologists to assess human trade and migration. Here we present mitochondrial analysis of 42 archaeological cattle ( Bos taurus ) bone samples, from 16 different sites in the Iberian Peninsula and covering a broad timeframe (from the early Neolithic to the Middle Ages), to provide evidence about the origin and dispersion of the T1 cattle haplogroup in relation to human contacts and movements. The presence of the T1 haplotype in one sample from an early Neolithic site close to the Mediterranean coast of Iberia, and its continuing presence in the Peninsula during Roman and Medieval times, clearly demonstr…
Modern taurine cattle descended from small number of near-eastern founders.
2012
Archaeozoological and genetic data indicate that taurine cattle were first domesticated from local wild ox (aurochs) in the Near East some 10,500 years ago. However, while modern mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) variation indicates early Holocene founding event(s), a lack of ancient DNA data from the region of origin, variation in mutation rate estimates, and limited application of appropriate inference methodologies have resulted in uncertainty on the number of animals first domesticated. A large number would be expected if cattle domestication was a technologically straightforward and unexacting region-wide phenomenon, while a smaller number would be consistent with a more complex and challengin…
Prediction Models for Age-at-Death Estimates for Calves, Using Unfused Epiphyses and Diaphyses
2013
For cattle (Bos taurus), age estimations using dental criteria before the eruption of the first molar (3-8months) have large error margins. This hampers archaeozoological investigation into perinatal mortality or the putative slaughtering of very young calves for milk exploitation. Previous ageing methods for subjuveniles have focused on the length of unfused bones, but it is rarely possible to use them because they are restricted to foetuses and because of the fragmentation of bones. This paper presents new age prediction models based on length, breadth and depth of post cranial bones produced from a dataset of modern calves (n=27). This reference collection was compiled from material of k…
Ancient goat genomes reveal mosaic domestication in the Fertile Crescent
2018
How humans got their goatsLittle is known regarding the location and mode of the early domestication of animals such as goats for husbandry. To investigate the history of the goat, Dalyet al.sequenced mitochondrial and nuclear sequences from ancient specimens ranging from hundreds to thousands of years in age. Multiple wild populations contributed to the origin of modern goats during the Neolithic. Over time, one mitochondrial type spread and became dominant worldwide. However, at the whole-genome level, modern goat populations are a mix of goats from different sources and provide evidence for a multilocus process of domestication in the Near East. Furthermore, the patterns described suppor…
The genetic prehistory of domesticated cattle from their origin to the spread across Europe
2015
Background Cattle domestication started in the 9th millennium BC in Southwest Asia. Domesticated cattle were then introduced into Europe during the Neolithic transition. However, the scarcity of palaeogenetic data from the first European domesticated cattle still inhibits the accurate reconstruction of their early demography. In this study, mitochondrial DNA from 193 ancient and 597 modern domesticated cattle (Bos taurus) from sites across Europe, Western Anatolia and Iran were analysed to provide insight into the Neolithic dispersal process and the role of the local European aurochs population during cattle domestication. Results Using descriptive summary statistics and serial coalescent s…