The Grange / Geigl Lab published a new article in Molecular biology and evolution :
The Population History of Domestic Sheep Revealed by Paleogenomes
Sheep were one of the first animals to be domesticated. The analysis of genomes retrieved from archaeological sheep bones preserved in Neolithic sites allowed Kaptan and colleagues to demonstrate that present-day sheep descend from Anatolian wild sheep which were domesticated around during the Neolithic. Three ~7,000-year-old sheep genomes from Neolithic sites in Picardie (Aisne valley) reveal that these sheep were of Anatolian descend and introduced with the first Neolithic farmers originating from Anatolia and peopling central and western Europe, including the Paris Basin. These introductions were later followed by introgression events highlighting the dynamics of the dispersal and admixture of various sheep populations.
Figure: Genetic analysis (D-PCA summarizing D-statistics) of 24 ancient sheep (O. aries) from Neolithic Anatolia, Iran, Iberia and France, Bronze Age Russia and the Baltic Sea in addition to present-day mouflons from Cyprus and Anatolia. Kaptlan et al, 2024
Article:
Kaptan D, Atağ G, Vural KB, Morell Miranda P, Akbaba A, Yüncü E, Buluktaev A, Abazari MF, Yorulmaz S, Kazancı DD, Küçükakdağ Doğu A, Çakan YG, Özbal R, Gerritsen F, De Cupere B, Duru R, Umurtak G, Arbuckle BS, Baird D, Çevik Ö, Bıçakçı E, Gündem CY, Pişkin E, Hachem L, Canpolat K, Fakhari Z, Ochir-Goryaeva M, Kukanova V, Valipour HR, Hoseinzadeh J, Küçük Baloğlu F, Götherström A, Hadjisterkotis E, Grange T, Geigl EM, Togan İZ, Günther T, Somel M, Özer F. (2024). The Population History of Domestic Sheep Revealed by Paleogenomes. Molecular Biology and Evolution. 41 (Issue 10) msae158.