Stockholm university

They map the meeting between modern humans and wild fauna in the northern hemisphere

With the help om advanced DNA technology, researchers will map the human encounter with the wild fauna in Eurasia. What happened when they interacted and how have they affected each other?

Sampling of ancient DNA
Sampling of ancient DNA. Photo: Jens Olof Lasthein

What actually happened when modern humans, Homo sapiens, encountered the wild fauna of Eurasia some 50 000 years ago is still shrouded in obscurity. Large parts of the animals that were there, such as mammoths, woolly rhinoceroses, camels and bison, disappear at about the same time. So how was the wild fauna affected by the hunt, and later, the cultivated landscape? And what affect did animals have on the people who came? Have animals influenced human behaviour in any way? And how did microbes, such as bacteria and viruses move between humans, domesticates, and wild fauna?

 

Extract and sequence DNA from prehistoric bones

The researchers will extract and sequence DNA from prehistoric bones, both human and faunal, and sediments. And collect genetic information from ancient humans as well as fauna and microbes. They will compare them against each other and against climate change. DNA from sediments can, for example, determine when different species, including Homo sapiens, appear in different areas. And DNA from prehistoric bones and teeth can show which disease-causing bacteria were common at certain times.

Anders Götherström
Anders Götherström
Photo: Richard Kihlström

“If we were to see humans increasing in areas where specific wild species decreased, while the climate was stable and no disease-causing microbes appeared, it could be an indication of human outcompeting, or even overhunting the animals,” says Anders Götherström, professor of molecular archeology at the Department of Archeology and Classical Studies, who conducts his research at the Centre for Paleogenetics. He has now been awarded a SEK 26.7 million grant by the Knut and Alice Wallenberg Foundation.

 

Use genetic data from several species

Previous attempts to study the interaction between humans, the fauna, domesticates, and microbes have worked only with single species. This project, however, will use genetic data from several species and study them in an integrated holistic fashion, using methods from several different scientific disciplines, such as archeology, geology and paleoecology.

Anders Götherström has spent the last few years developing methods to find and analyze DNA from bacteria and viruses in prehistoric material. The three other researchers who are part of the project also have extensive experience with the genetics they expect to encounter. Maja Krzewińska specializes in ancient human DNA, while Love Dalén is a specialist in paleogenetics in the megafauna of the Northern Hemispere, and Peter Heintzman in DNA from prehistoric sediments. To help them, they have the new facility for prehistoric DNA housed at the Centre for Peleogenetics, a collaboration between Stockholm University and the Swedish Museum of Natural History.

Read more on Centre for Palaeogenetics.

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