| [microstructure of fossil mammalian bones from the rixdorfer horizon of weichsel-kaltzeit at niederlehme near königs wusterhausen (brandengurg)]. | the structure is reported of bones of glacial-period mammals, which were found in 1973 to 1989 in gravel-sandy soil of the fossiliferous layer "rixdorfer horizont" at niederlehme near königs wusterhausen. the findings, probably, date from one of the interstages of the glacial period "weichsel-kaltzeit" before the stage "brandenburger stadium". their embedding took place more than 20,000 years ago. changes of the deposit of bones and teeth from older sediments are not to exclude in the finding pl ... | 1993 | 8489038 |
| rise and fall of the beringian steppe bison. | the widespread extinctions of large mammals at the end of the pleistocene epoch have often been attributed to the depredations of humans; here we present genetic evidence that questions this assumption. we used ancient dna and bayesian techniques to reconstruct a detailed genetic history of bison throughout the late pleistocene and holocene epochs. our analyses depict a large diverse population living throughout beringia until around 37,000 years before the present, when the population's genetic ... | 2004 | 15567864 |
| new carbon dates link climatic change with human colonization and pleistocene extinctions. | drastic ecological restructuring, species redistribution and extinctions mark the pleistocene-holocene transition, but an insufficiency of numbers of well-dated large mammal fossils from this transition have impeded progress in understanding the various causative links. here i add many new radiocarbon dates to those already published on late pleistocene fossils from alaska and the yukon territory (ak-yt) and show previously unrecognized patterns. species that survived the pleistocene, for exampl ... | 2006 | 16688174 |
| human influence on distribution and extinctions of the late pleistocene eurasian megafauna. | late pleistocene extinctions are of interest to paleontological and anthropological research. in north america and australia, human occupation occurred during a short period of time and overexploitation may have led to the extinction of mammalian megafauna. in northern eurasia megafaunal extinctions are believed to have occurred over a relatively longer period of time, perhaps as a result of changing environmental conditions, but the picture is much less clear. to consider megafaunal extinction ... | 2008 | 18199470 |
| the effect of ancient dna damage on inferences of demographic histories. | the field of ancient dna (adna) is casting new light on many evolutionary questions. however, problems associated with the postmortem instability of dna may complicate the interpretation of adna data. for example, in population genetic studies, the inclusion of damaged dna may inflate estimates of diversity. in this paper, we examine the effect of dna damage on population genetic estimates of ancestral population size. we simulate data using standard coalescent simulations that include postmorte ... | 2008 | 18653730 |
| resolving the evolution of extant and extinct ruminants with high-throughput phylogenomics. | the pecorans (higher ruminants) are believed to have rapidly speciated in the mid-eocene, resulting in five distinct extant families: antilocapridae, giraffidae, moschidae, cervidae, and bovidae. due to the rapid radiation, the pecoran phylogeny has proven difficult to resolve, and 11 of the 15 possible rooted phylogenies describing ancestral relationships among the antilocapridae, giraffidae, cervidae, and bovidae have each been argued as representations of the true phylogeny. here we demonstra ... | 2009 | 19846765 |
| Species-specific responses of Late Quaternary megafauna to climate and humans. | Despite decades of research, the roles of climate and humans in driving the dramatic extinctions of large-bodied mammals during the Late Quaternary period remain contentious. Here we use ancient DNA, species distribution models and the human fossil record to elucidate how climate and humans shaped the demographic history of woolly rhinoceros, woolly mammoth, wild horse, reindeer, bison and musk ox. We show that climate has been a major driver of population change over the past 50,000 years. Howe ... | 2011 | 22048313 |
| hunting the extinct steppe bison (bison priscus) mitochondrial genome in the trois-frères paleolithic painted cave. | despite the abundance of fossil remains for the extinct steppe bison (bison priscus), an animal that was painted and engraved in numerous european paleolithic caves, a complete mitochondrial genome sequence has never been obtained for this species. in the present study we collected bone samples from a sector of the trois-frères paleolithic cave (ariège, france) that formerly functioned as a pitfall and was sealed before the end of the pleistocene. screening the dna content of the samples collect ... | 2015 | 26083419 |
| high-resolution analysis of cytosine methylation in ancient dna. | epigenetic changes to gene expression can result in heritable phenotypic characteristics that are not encoded in the dna itself, but rather by biochemical modifications to the dna or associated chromatin proteins. interposed between genes and environment, these epigenetic modifications can be influenced by environmental factors to affect phenotype for multiple generations. this raises the possibility that epigenetic states provide a substrate for natural selection, with the potential to particip ... | 2012 | 22276161 |
| past climate changes, population dynamics and the origin of bison in europe. | climatic and environmental fluctuations as well as anthropogenic pressure have led to the extinction of much of europe's megafauna. the european bison or wisent (bison bonasus), one of the last wild european large mammals, narrowly escaped extinction at the onset of the 20th century owing to hunting and habitat fragmentation. little is known, however, about its origin, evolutionary history and population dynamics during the pleistocene. | 2016 | 27769298 |
| early cave art and ancient dna record the origin of european bison. | the two living species of bison (european and american) are among the few terrestrial megafauna to have survived the late pleistocene extinctions. despite the extensive bovid fossil record in eurasia, the evolutionary history of the european bison (or wisent, bison bonasus) before the holocene (<11.7 thousand years ago (kya)) remains a mystery. we use complete ancient mitochondrial genomes and genome-wide nuclear dna surveys to reveal that the wisent is the product of hybridization between the e ... | 2016 | 27754477 |
| european bison as a refugee species? evidence from isotopic data on early holocene bison and other large herbivores in northern europe. | according to the refugee species concept, increasing replacement of open steppe by forest cover after the last glacial period and human pressure had together forced european bison (bison bonasus)--the largest extant terrestrial mammal of europe--into forests as a refuge habitat. the consequent decreased fitness and population density led to the gradual extinction of the species. understanding the pre-refugee ecology of the species may help its conservation management and ensure its long time sur ... | 2015 | 25671634 |
| genome data on the extinct bison schoetensacki establish it as a sister species of the extant european bison (bison bonasus). | the european bison (bison bonasus), now found in europe and the caucasus, has been proposed to originate either from the extinct steppe/extant american bison lineage or from the extinct bison schoetensacki lineage. bison schoetensacki remains are documented in eurasian middle pleistocene sites, but their presence in upper pleistocene sites has been questioned. despite extensive genetic studies carried out on the steppe and european bison, no remains from the fossil record morphologically identif ... | 2017 | 28187706 |
| fossil and genomic evidence constrains the timing of bison arrival in north america. | the arrival of bison in north america marks one of the most successful large-mammal dispersals from asia within the last million years, yet the timing and nature of this event remain poorly determined. here, we used a combined paleontological and paleogenomic approach to provide a robust timeline for the entry and subsequent evolution of bison within north america. we characterized two fossil-rich localities in canada's yukon and identified the oldest well-constrained bison fossil in north ameri ... | 2017 | 28289222 |
| new data on the internal organs of a frozen yukagir bison mummy (bison priscus bojanus, 1827), yakutia, russia. | the paper presents the first morphological description of the internal organs of a frozen corpse of the steppe bison bison priscus (bojanus, 1827) from the holocene of northern yakutia. necropsy revealed that most of the internal organs, including the brain, heart with the main vessels, and reproductive system were well preserved. it demonstrated that the anatomy of this bison was close to that of the genera bos and bison. trauma or pathological changes in the organs were not detected. the cause ... | 2016 | 27193884 |
| [isolation of a divergent strain of candida saitoana from the anyui mummy of a steppe bison (bison priscus)]. | | 2015 | 25844447 |
| the first finding of a frozen holocene bison (bison priscus bojanus, 1827) carcass in chukotka. | | 2013 | 24150651 |
| preliminary analyses of the frozen mummies of mammoth (mammuthus primigenius), bison (bison priscus) and horse (equus sp.) from the yana-indigirka lowland, yakutia, russia. | the frozen bodies of a young woolly mammoth (mammuthus primigenius), a wild horse (equus sp.) and a steppe bison (bison priscus) were recently found in the northern yakutia (northeastern siberia). all specimens have preserved bones, skin and soft tissues. whereas the woolly mammoth and the pleistocene horse were represented by partial frozen bodies, the steppe bison body was recovered in an absolutely complete state. all specimens were found frozen in the permafrost, with some of the tissues mum ... | 2014 | 24148659 |
| first dna sequences from asian cave bear fossils reveal deep divergences and complex phylogeographic patterns. | until recently, cave bears were believed to have only inhabited europe. however, recent morphological evidence suggests that cave bears' geographic range extended as far east as transbaikalia, eastern siberia. these asian cave bears were morphologically distinct from european cave bears. however, how they related to european lineages remains unclear, stressing the need to assess the phylogenetic and phylogeographic relationship between asian cave bears and their european relatives. in this work, ... | 2009 | 19226321 |
| impact-related microspherules in late pleistocene alaskan and yukon "muck" deposits signify recurrent episodes of catastrophic emplacement. | large quantities of impact-related microspherules have been found in fine-grained sediments retained within seven out of nine, radiocarbon-dated, late pleistocene mammoth (mammuthus primigenius) and bison (bison priscus) skull fragments. the well-preserved fossils were recovered from frozen "muck" deposits (organic-rich silt) exposed within the fairbanks and klondike mining districts of alaska, usa, and the yukon territory, canada. in addition, elevated platinum abundances were found in sediment ... | 2017 | 29192242 |
| a mobile laboratory for ancient dna analysis. | mobile devices for on-field dna analysis have been used for medical diagnostics at the point-of-care, forensic investigations and environmental surveys, but still have to be validated for ancient dna studies. we report here on a mobile laboratory that we setup using commercially available devices, including a compact real-time pcr machine, and describe procedures to perform dna extraction and analysis from a variety of archeological samples within 4 hours. the process is carried out on 50 mg sam ... | 2020 | 32187203 |
| widespread male sex bias in mammal fossil and museum collections. | a recent study of mammoth subfossil remains has demonstrated the potential of using relatively low-coverage high-throughput dna sequencing to genetically sex specimens, revealing a strong male-biased sex ratio [p. pečnerová et al., curr. biol. 27, 3505-3510.e3 (2017)]. similar patterns were predicted for steppe bison, based on their analogous female herd-based structure. we genetically sexed subfossil remains of 186 holarctic bison (bison spp.), and also 91 brown bears (ursus arctos), which are ... | 2019 | 31481609 |
| metapodials of ancient bison (bison priscus) of northeast russia: "stress markers," sex and withers height. | a total of 175 metapodials (mp) of pleistocene and early holocene bison (bison priscus boj.) from the vast area of northeast russia were studied. mp were attributed to males and females both visually and statistically. data on the withers height of bison from northeast russia are provided. stress markers were recorded, including so-called "buttresses." with rare exceptions, stress markers were not of a pathological nature. the origin and development of the buttresses are age-related; their preva ... | 2019 | 30019862 |
| horseshoe-based bayesian nonparametric estimation of effective population size trajectories. | phylodynamics is an area of population genetics that uses genetic sequence data to estimate past population dynamics. modern state-of-the-art bayesian nonparametric methods for recovering population size trajectories of unknown form use either change-point models or gaussian process priors. change-point models suffer from computational issues when the number of change-points is unknown and needs to be estimated. gaussian process-based methods lack local adaptivity and cannot accurately recover t ... | 2020 | 32277713 |
| resorptive depressions on a horn core of late pleistocene (mis 3) bison priscus (bovidae, mammalia) from northeastern germany. | this report describes an isolated right horn core of a fossil steppe bison (bison priscus) recovered from late pleistocene deposits near langsdorf in the federal state of mecklenburg-vorpommern (germany). ams radiocarbon dating provided an age of 45353±2894cal yr bp for the specimen. the horn core, which by morphological criteria belonged to a female, has two depressions in its basal portion that differ in size, shape, and depth. while depressions are known from horn cores of domestic cattle, sh ... | 2016 | 29539557 |