Genomic insights into long-term domestic animal translocation

Summary

Animal domestication first began at least 14,000 years ago with the archaeological emergence of domestic dogs. A multitude of other animals followed suit more or less coincident with the origins of settled agriculture in numerous locations independently. The history of human translocations of wild animals dates back to at least 40,000 years ago, and humans were certainly responsible for the appearance of the wild progenitors of domestic animals on islands prior to their domestication. Here, I will present the evidence for human manipulation of wild and domestic animal populations, and demonstrate how new genomic evidence is shaping our perceptions of both the frequency of human-mediated translocation and the role of admixture between domestic and wild populations across the globe. More specifically I will show how an assessment of modern and ancient DNA can reveal long-term patterns of gene flow in several domestic species and how those patterns mirror the migration pathways and timings of the people with whom they travelled.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• Society for American Archaeology 81st Annual Meeting, Orlando, FL (2016)   •
• Biological Exchange in the Anthropocene: Archaeological and Genetic Perspectives

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