Pig domestication and human-mediated dispersal in western Eurasia revealed through ancient DNA and geometric morphometrics

Zooarcheological evidence suggests that pigs were domesticated in Southwest Asia ~8,500 BC. They then spread across the Middle and Near East and westward into Europe alongside early agriculturalists. European pigs were either domesticated independently or more likely appeared so as a result of admix...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:	Molecular biology and evolution Vol. 30; no. 4; pp. 824 - 832
Main Authors:	Ottoni, Claudio, Flink, Linus Girdland, Evin, Allowen, Geörg, Christina, De Cupere, Bea, Van Neer, Wim, Bartosiewicz, László, Linderholm, Anna, Barnett, Ross, Peters, Joris, Decorte, Ronny, Waelkens, Marc, Vanderheyden, Nancy, Ricaut, François-Xavier, Cakirlar, Canan, Cevik, Ozlem, Hoelzel, A Rus, Mashkour, Marjan, Karimlu, Azadeh Fatemeh Mohaseb, Seno, Shiva Sheikhi, Daujat, Julie, Brock, Fiona, Pinhasi, Ron, Hongo, Hitomi, Perez-Enciso, Miguel, Rasmussen, Morten, Frantz, Laurent, Megens, Hendrik-Jan, Crooijmans, Richard, Groenen, Martien, Arbuckle, Benjamin, Benecke, Nobert, Vidarsdottir, Una Strand, Burger, Joachim, Cucchi, Thomas, Dobney, Keith, Larson, Greger
Format:	Journal Article
Language:	English
Published:	United States Oxford University Press 01-04-2013 Oxford University Press (OUP)
Subjects:	agriculture Animal Distribution Animals Animals, Domestic Animals, Domestic - genetics Archaeology Asia Biological anthropology Discoveries Dispersal DNA, Mitochondrial DNA, Mitochondrial - genetics Domestic animals Domestication Europe expansions farmers Genetics Geomorphology history Hogs Humanities and Social Sciences Humans insights Life Sciences likelihood Mitochondrial DNA Molar Molar - anatomy & histology origins Phylogeography Populations and Evolution Sequence Analysis, DNA shape Sus scrofa Sus scrofa - genetics Swine Swine - genetics wild Zoology Asia Europe
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Summary:	Zooarcheological evidence suggests that pigs were domesticated in Southwest Asia ~8,500 BC. They then spread across the Middle and Near East and westward into Europe alongside early agriculturalists. European pigs were either domesticated independently or more likely appeared so as a result of admixture between introduced pigs and European wild boar. As a result, European wild boar mtDNA lineages replaced Near Eastern/Anatolian mtDNA signatures in Europe and subsequently replaced indigenous domestic pig lineages in Anatolia. The specific details of these processes, however, remain unknown. To address questions related to early pig domestication, dispersal, and turnover in the Near East, we analyzed ancient mitochondrial DNA and dental geometric morphometric variation in 393 ancient pig specimens representing 48 archeological sites (from the Pre-Pottery Neolithic to the Medieval period) from Armenia, Cyprus, Georgia, Iran, Syria, and Turkey. Our results reveal the first genetic signatures of early domestic pigs in the Near Eastern Neolithic core zone. We also demonstrate that these early pigs differed genetically from those in western Anatolia that were introduced to Europe during the Neolithic expansion. In addition, we present a significantly more refined chronology for the introduction of European domestic pigs into Asia Minor that took place during the Bronze Age, at least 900 years earlier than previously detected. By the 5th century AD, European signatures completely replaced the endemic lineages possibly coinciding with the widespread demographic and societal changes that occurred during the Anatolian Bronze and Iron Ages.
Bibliography:	ObjectType-Article-1 SourceType-Scholarly Journals-1 ObjectType-Feature-2 content type line 23 ObjectType-Article-2 ObjectType-Feature-1 PMCID: PMC3603306 These authors contributed equally to this work. Associate editor: Sarah Tishkoff
ISSN:	0737-4038 1537-1719
DOI:	10.1093/molbev/mss261