Summary Horse domestication revolutionized warfare and accelerated travel, trade, and the geographic expansion of languages. Here, we present the largest DNA time series for a non-human organism to date, including genome-scale data from 149 ancient animals and 129 ancient genomes (≥1-fold coverage), 87 of which are new. This extensive dataset allows us to assess the modern legacy of past equestrian civilizations. We find that two extinct horse lineages existed during early domestication, one at the far western (Iberia) and the other at the far eastern range (Siberia) of Eurasia. None of these contributed significantly to modern diversity. We show that the influence of Persian-related horse lineages increased following the Islamic conquests in Europe and Asia. Multiple alleles associated with elite-racing, including at the MSTN “speed gene,” only rose in popularity within the last millennium. Finally, the development of modern breeding impacted genetic diversity more dramatically than the previous millennia of human management.
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RBINS Staff Publications 2019
We describe new material of the tristichopterids cf. Langlieria socqueti and cf. Eusthenodon wangsjoi and other unassignable tetrapodomorph remains from the upper Famennian locality of Strud, Belgium. Because of recent improvements in our tristichopterid knowledge, a new phylogenetic analysis is presented in addition to a paleobiogeographic analysis using the Bayesian binary Markov chain Monte Carlo (MCMC) statistical method. The origin of the whole tristichopterid clade is reconstructed with a very likely western European origin. Much of the early tristichopterid history took place in Euramerica. During the Late Devonian, tristichopterids most probably spread from Euramerica into Gondwana. The highly nested tristichopterid clade formed by Cabonnichthys burnsi, Mandageria fairfaxi, E. wangsjoi, Edenopteron keithcrooki, and Hyneria lindae most likely differentiated in Australia. Then dispersal events occurred from Australia to Euramerica with Hyneria lindae (to eastern North America) and E. wangsjoi (to Greenland/western Europe). The latter dispersal events, during the Famennian, are in agreement with the Great Devonian Interchange, which predicts dispersal events between Gondwana and Euramerica at this time.
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RBINS Staff Publications 2020
