An Ancient Baboon Genome Demonstrates Long-Term Population Continuity in Southern Africa

Iain Mathieson*, Federico Abascal, Lasse Vinner, Pontus Skoglund, Cristina Pomilla, Peter Mitchell, Charles Arthur, Deepti Gurdasani, Eske Willerslev, Manj S. Sandhu, Genevieve Dewar

*Corresponding author for this work

Research output: Contribution to journalJournal articleResearchpeer-review

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Abstract

Baboons are one of the most abundant large nonhuman primates and are widely studied in biomedical, behavioral, and anthropological research. Despite this, our knowledge of their evolutionary and demographic history remains incomplete. Here, we report a 0.9-fold coverage genome sequence from a 5800-year-old baboon from the site of Ha Makotoko in Lesotho. The ancient baboon is closely related to present-day Papio ursinus individuals from southern Africa-indicating a high degree of continuity in the southern African baboon population. This level of population continuity is rare in recent human populations but may provide a good model for the evolution of Homo and other large primates over similar timespans in structured populations throughout Africa.

Original languageEnglish
JournalGenome Biology and Evolution
Volume12
Issue number4
Pages (from-to)407-412
Number of pages6
ISSN1759-6653
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 2020

Keywords

  • ancient DNA
  • baboons
  • demography
  • MULTIPLE SEQUENCE ALIGNMENT
  • DNA
  • PERFORMANCE
  • ADMIXTURE
  • ANCESTRY

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