scholarly journals Unearthing Neanderthal population history using nuclear and mitochondrial DNA from cave sediments

Science ◽  
2021 ◽  
pp. eabf1667
Author(s):  
Benjamin Vernot ◽  
Elena I. Zavala ◽  
Asier Gómez-Olivencia ◽  
Zenobia Jacobs ◽  
Viviane Slon ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Mitochondrial Dna ◽  
Western Europe ◽  
Nuclear Dna ◽  
Population History ◽  
Archaeological Sites ◽  
Northern Spain ◽  
Population Replacement ◽  
Cave Sediments ◽  
History Of

Bones and teeth are important sources of Pleistocene hominin DNA, but are rarely recovered at archaeological sites. Mitochondrial DNA has been retrieved from cave sediments, but provides limited value for studying population relationships. We therefore developed methods for the enrichment and analysis of nuclear DNA from sediments, and applied them to cave deposits in western Europe and southern Siberia dated to between approximately 200,000 and 50,000 years ago. We detect a population replacement in northern Spain approximately 100,000 years ago, accompanied by a turnover of mitochondrial DNA. We also identify two radiation events in Neanderthal history during the early part of the Late Pleistocene. Our work lays the ground for studying the population history of ancient hominins from trace amounts of nuclear DNA in sediments.

scholarly journals Morphological and genetic differentiation of Bufo toads: two cryptic species in Western Europe (Anura, Bufonidae)

2013 ◽  
Vol 82 (4) ◽  
pp. 147-169 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jan W. Arntzen ◽  
Jacob McAtear ◽  
Ernesto Recuero ◽  
Janine M. Ziermann ◽  
Annemarie Ohler ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Mitochondrial Dna ◽  
Genetic Differentiation ◽  
Western Europe ◽  
Nuclear Dna ◽  
Sequence Data ◽  
Bufo Bufo ◽  
Sensu Stricto ◽  
Additional Species ◽  
Morphometric Characters ◽  
Evolutionary Context

The Common toad Bufo bufo sensu lato is a widespread, morphologically conserved taxon. Recent studies have uncovered deep genetic differentiation between population groups, highlighting the need to revise the current taxonomy of the group and recognize additional species. Here we investigate patterns of variation in molecular (a mitochondrial DNA restriction enzyme assay and sequence data for two nuclear DNA fragments totalling 979 bp) and 17 morphological variables in Northern France where two of these groups meet (B. bufo sensu stricto and B. spinosus), in order to delineate their contact zone and uncover characters that would allow discrimination of the two taxa. Mitochondrial DNA data show an abrupt transition from areas where B. bufo is present to those inhabited by B. spinosus, with a narrow area of overlap east of the city of Caen. Morphometric characters, particularly those related to the positioning of the parotoid glands and metatarsal tubercle shape and size, proved useful in discriminating between species (AUC ≥ 0.97, kappa ≥ 0.79). We then used the differentiating character states to allocate over 300 museum specimens from Western Europe to either species with consistent results, including comparable values of AUC and kappa of the identification models, indicating that models could successfully be applied across datasets. We summarize available evidence relevant to the delineation of the distribution of B. bufo and B. spinosus in France and discuss the characters differentiating both species in an evolutionary context. In view of the observed morphological and genetic differentiation and the absence of unequivocal evidence for widespread hybridization we support the view that B. bufo and B. spinosus are best considered different species. Finally, we propose that ‘parotoids in parallel position’ and a thin and smooth skin are derived character states for B. bufo over the northern part of its range.

The Structured Dependence of the Elderly as a Recent Development: Some Sceptical Historical Thoughts

1984 ◽  
Vol 4 (4) ◽  
pp. 409-428 ◽  
Author(s):  
Richard M. Smith
Keyword(s):  
Western Europe ◽  
The Elderly ◽  
Population History ◽  
High Fertility ◽  
Structural Determinants ◽  
North West ◽  
Kinship System ◽  
The Social ◽  
The Status ◽  
History Of

ABSTRACTThere has recently emerged in the writings of those who have adopted an overtly ‘radical’ approach to social work and the welfare state, a coherent interpretation of how the status of older persons is lowered in the course of the development of industrial capitalism. The focus in these recent writings is on the social creation of dependent status and the structural determinants of the competitive relationship between elderly individuals and younger adults in the labour market. This paper reviews the arguments of this school of thought arguing firstly that it fails to take sufficient account of the longer term population history of England, suggesting that the contrast between the middle and later twentieth century and the nineteenth century is apparently so marked largely because of the atypicality of the latter period when high fertility and rapid demographic growth produced an historical minimum for the proportion of the elderly in the total population. A second failure in this recent radical or marxist research is that it also does not take sufficient account of the kinship system in north west Europe which appears to have created a situation of structured dependency of the elderly on the collectivity irrespective of the specific mode of production. Pre-industrial north west Europeans exhibited a striking contrast in this particular cultural trait with many, indeed most non-industrial societies outside Western Europe or regions populated by emmigrants from that area.

Mitochondrial DNA evolution and population history of the Tenerife skinkChalcides viridanus

2000 ◽  
Vol 9 (8) ◽  
pp. 1061-1067 ◽  
Author(s):  
R. P. Brown ◽  
R. Campos-Delgado ◽  
J. Pestano
Keyword(s):  
Mitochondrial Dna ◽  
Population History ◽  
Dna Evolution ◽  
History Of

scholarly journals Nuclear DNA from two early Neandertals reveals 80,000 years of genetic continuity in Europe

2019 ◽  
Vol 5 (6) ◽  
pp. eaaw5873 ◽  
Author(s):  
Stéphane Peyrégne ◽  
Viviane Slon ◽  
Fabrizio Mafessoni ◽  
Cesare de Filippo ◽  
Mateja Hajdinjak ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Common Ancestor ◽  
Nuclear Dna ◽  
Population History ◽  
The Other ◽  
Genomic Sequences ◽  
Recent Common Ancestor ◽  
Mitochondrial Lineage ◽  
Most Recent Common Ancestor ◽  
History Of ◽  
Genetic Continuity

Little is known about the population history of Neandertals over the hundreds of thousands of years of their existence. We retrieved nuclear genomic sequences from two Neandertals, one from Hohlenstein-Stadel Cave in Germany and the other from Scladina Cave in Belgium, who lived around 120,000 years ago. Despite the deeply divergent mitochondrial lineage present in the former individual, both Neandertals are genetically closer to later Neandertals from Europe than to a roughly contemporaneous individual from Siberia. That the Hohlenstein-Stadel and Scladina individuals lived around the time of their most recent common ancestor with later Neandertals suggests that all later Neandertals trace at least part of their ancestry back to these early European Neandertals.

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