Ancient DNA shows high faunal diversity in the Lesser Caucasus during the Late Pleistocene

Mariya Antonosyan*, Frederik V. Seersholm, Alicia C. Grealy, Milo Barham, Daniel Werndly, Ashot Margaryan, Agata Cieślik, Thomas W. Stafford, Morten E. Allentoft, Michael Bunce, Levon Yepiskoposyan

*Corresponding author for this work

Research output: Contribution to journalJournal articleResearchpeer-review

8 Citations (Scopus)

Abstract

In this study, we explore the Late Pleistocene (LP) vertebrate faunal diversity in south-eastern Lesser Caucasus based on morphological and genetic identification of fossil bones from Karin Tak cave. For the first time in this under-studied region, we used a bulk bone metabarcoding genetic approach to complement traditional morphology-based taxonomic identifications that are hampered by highly fragmented fossil bones. Excellent ancient DNA (aDNA) preservation allowed for a successful species identification of many bone remains and improved paleoenvironmental interpretations for the region. The aDNA identification of fossil bones revealed a high diversity of animal taxa inhabiting the region between ca. > 42,000 and 25,683–24,803 calibrated years before present (cal. BP).

Original languageEnglish
JournalQuaternary Science Reviews
Volume219
Pages (from-to)102-111
Number of pages10
ISSN0277-3791
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 2019

Keywords

  • Ancient DNA
  • Biodiversity
  • Bulk bone metabarcoding
  • Karin tak cave
  • Late pleistocene
  • Lesser Caucasus
  • Palaeoenvironmental reconstruction

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