Geneticists have discovered new subspecies of wild goats through ancient DNA

Geneticists from Trinity College Dublin, along with an international collaborative team, have uncovered a previously unknown lineage
of wild goats that are over 10,000 years old.
The study was publicly peer-reviewed and recommended by PCI Genomics and has just been published in the
journal eLife.
This new goat, discovered through genetic screening of skeletal remains known as the "Taurasian tur," most likely survived the last glacier heyday (Ice Age), where their ancestors were trapped on the peaks of Turkey's Taurus Mountains, where their remains were
found.

An accidental discovery of Direkli Caves

More than 12,000 years ago, hunters and pickers in the Taurus Mountains of southern Turkey relied heavily on local prey for food and survival
.
Direkli Cave is about 1100 meters above sea level, and for about 3,000 years (about 14,000-11,000 years ago) it has been a seasonal camp for these hunters and may be inhabited
all year round.

"Among the artifacts found in the Direkli cave are a large number of bone remains with obvious traces of processing, suggesting that wild goats were slaughtered and eaten there," said Dr.
Kevin Daly, from Trinity College's School of Genetics and Microbiology, the first author
of the research paper.
"Since the cave is surrounded by peaks up to 2,200 meters high, the wild goats or cattle yellow goats (Capra aegagrus) that live in the area today are likely to be the target of
these late Pleistocene hunters.
"

In conducting genetic screening of goat bone remains from Direkli, geneticists noticed something unusual: Many goats carried mitochondrial genomes
similar to another wild goat.

Although the home goat evolved from the cattle yellow goat, other species of wild goats still survive today and are only found
in relatively limited areas.
These include the East Caucasian goat and the West Caucasian goat, two sister species (or subspecies) of wild goats that are now found only in the Caucasus Mountains of Georgia
.
Although the Direkli caves are about 800 kilometers from their current habitat, many Direkli cave samples carry mitochondria associated with these Caucasian turrs
.

Dr Daly added: "What was even more surprising was when we examined the nuclear genome of the Direkli cave goat: while most of them looked like cattle and yellow sheep, as we expected, there was one sample that seemed different
from the others.
This sample, Direkli4, shows more ancestral genetic variation than other Direkli goats, suggesting that it may be a different species
.
”

To better understand this, the Trinity College team collaborated with researchers from Muséum national d'histoire naturelle of Paris to extract genetic data
from other species in the Capra taxa.

A new Tur pedigree

The team was surprised to find that the Direkli4 sample actually appeared to be a sister group
of Eastern and Western types.
Driven by curiosity, the team screened more material from the Direkli caves and found two other samples with "Tur-like" genomes, suggesting that a group of people from these Tur families lived in Taurus Mountain, close to the local cattle and yellow sheep, and were hunted by humans in prehistoric times
.

The team suggested a name for the horned sheep found: Capra taurensis or Capra caucasica taurensis
.

Since goat turs are larger and heavier than other wild goats and have a unique horn shape, it should be possible to identify relatives
of a group of goats in animal remains.

Victims of climate change and human activities?

The team believes that over the past 100,000 years, Tur's ancestors lived in a much wider geographic area, from the Caucasus Mountains to the Taurus Mountains on the Mediterranean side, and that climate change could have led to habitat fragmentation
.

Dr Daly said: "The last ice age or ice age may have made many areas uninhabitable, forcing these goats to compete
with other species.
" The herd of horned sheep may be a remnant of a herd that is confined to the peaks
of the Taurus Mountains.
Increasing human activity may put extra pressure on the horned sheep, as hunting at the Direkli Cave demonstrates
.

"While we don't know when or how this goat lineage became extinct, additional genomic surveys conducted in the region may indicate that their genomes are still present
in wild goats today.
"

eLife