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The oldest domestic animal genome reveals the origin of domesticated goats |
Ancient hunters and farmers living in the highlands of western Iran may be the first to domesticate livestock
.
Now, a new study has sequenced the oldest domestic animal genome to date, which also supports this view
David MacHugh, an animal geneticist at the University College of Dublin, Ireland, said that this study has touched, or is close to, the "origin of goat domestication
.
" He said that because domestication of domestic animals paved the way for population growth and social complication, "this is indeed one of the key moments in prehistoric times
Since the 1950s, archaeologists have found bones of ancient livestock near the Zagros Mountains in Iran
.
This area is located at the eastern end of the Fertile Crescent, which is considered the cradle of agriculture and some early civilizations
In order to understand the process of early animal domestication, Melinda Zeder, an emeritus archaeologist at the National Museum of Natural History of the Smithsonian Institution, and others, including some Iranian archaeologists, analyzed the history of the Zagros Mountains in the 1960s and 1970s.
Goat bones excavated at the two sites Ganj Dareh and Tepe Abdul Hosein
.
From 8200 BC to 7600 BC, people lived, hunted and planted crops in these fertile valleys
Archaeological evidence suggests that people at that time may have been managing sheep, not just hunting
.
"Hunters and herders have different concerns
This is exactly the pattern the researchers found in the two sites
.
Moreover, the hoof prints printed on the mud bricks unearthed in Ganj Dareh further prove that people are domesticating goats because wild goats do not usually walk around in the village
Scientists recently reported in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States that by comparing the DNA of ancient domesticated goats and modern wild goats in the area, they found different gene clusters, indicating that these domesticated goats were hybrids with each other
.
Zeder said this confirms that the domestic goat population is largely separated from the wild goats in the area
In these early domestic goats, researchers discovered six major mitochondrial haplotypes, or gene sets inherited along the maternal line, which are all present in modern domestic goat populations
.
Zeder said this discovery suggests that today's goats are direct descendants of goats that were domesticated 10,000 years ago
"This is a fascinating study
.
" said Cheryl Makarewicz, an archaeologist at the University of Kiel in Germany who was not involved in the study.
The results show that the earliest herders perfected their management strategies before they successfully domesticated their livestock
.
(Source: Lu Yi, China Science News)
Related paper information: https://doi.
org/10.
1073/pnas.
2100901118
org/10.
1073/pnas.
2100901118