Taming the Past: Ancient DNA and the Study of Animal Domestication

2016/11/04 by David E. MacHugh, Greger Larson, Ludovic Orlando · 6 citations
Earth and Planetary Sciences · Biochemistry, Genetics and Molecular Biology · Arts and Humanities · #Archaeology and ancient environmental studies #Forensic and Genetic Research #Paleopathology and ancient diseases

paper · doi:10.1146/annurev-animal-022516-022747

openalex publication_date 2016/11/04 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/07/31

Abstract

During the last decade, ancient DNA research has been revolutionized by the availability of increasingly powerful DNA sequencing and ancillary genomics technologies, giving rise to the new field of paleogenomics. In this review, we show how our understanding of the genetic basis of animal domestication and the origins and dispersal of livestock and companion animals during the Upper Paleolithic and Neolithic periods is being rapidly transformed through new scientific knowledge generated with paleogenomic methods. These techniques have been particularly informative in revealing high-resolution patterns of artificial and natural selection and evidence for significant admixture between early domestic animal populations and their wild congeners.

Citations

• A draft genome of Yersinia pestis from victims of the Black Death
• The Earliest Horse Harnessing and Milking
• The Complete Mitochondrial Genome of an 11,450-year-old Aurochsen (Bos primigenius) from Central Italy
• Complete Genomes Reveal Signatures of Demographic and Genetic Declines in the Woolly Mammoth
• Pathogens and host immunity in the ancient human oral cavity
• Cultivation and domestication had multiple origins: arguments against the core area hypothesis for the origins of agriculture in the Near East
• A Draft Sequence of the Neandertal Genome
• Ancient human genome sequence of an extinct Palaeo-Eskimo
• Genome sequencing of the extinct Eurasian wild aurochs, Bos primigenius, illuminates the phylogeography and evolution of cattle
• A Complete Mitochondrial Genome Sequence from a Mesolithic Wild Aurochs (Bos primigenius)
• Tracking the origins of Yakutian horses and the genetic basis for their fast adaptation to subarctic environments
• Agricultural Origins and Frontiers in South Asia: A Working Synthesis

Cited by

• Domestication of cattle: Two or three events?
• Genome-Wide microRNA Binding Site Variation between Extinct Wild Aurochs and Modern Cattle Identifies Candidate microRNA-Regulated Domestication Genes
• On the Evolution of Lactase Persistence in Humans
• Illuminating the mysteries of wolf history
• Late Pleistocene [wikipedia]
• Subneolithic [wikipedia]