Abstract
From the very beginning sheep keepers (un-)consciously selected animals with traits amenable to life and reproduction in an anthropogenic environment. Over the millennia sheep lineages developed which were adapted to the diverse landscapes and climates currently inhabited by the species. With time, human selection also fostered desired traits, such as docility, higher average milk production, abundant fleece or excessive fat depots, amongst others. However, verifying their appearance in the archaeological record is quite difficult applying standard archaeozoological methods. Here we present a Geometric Morphometric (GMM) approach that can shed light on these developments. Our study compares astragali of three wild and five domestic sheep populations. They come from prehistoric contexts in SW Asia dating to the Early Neolithic, Middle Chalcolithic and Late Bronze Age as well as modern reference series housed in natural history collections. We observe that ancient and modern wild sheep share the same astragalar morphology. Moreover, domestic sheep from Middle Chalcolithic Central Anatolia still resemble closely their Neolithic SE Anatolian wild relatives. Modern sheep populations from the United Kingdom and NW Germany form a distinct cluster, whereas sheep populations from Late Bronze Age Syria and particularly modern Karakul sheep clearly position away from all of the aforementioned groups, underscoring their distinct morphology. We conclude that the phenotypes preserved in the astragalar size and shape are at the same time a reflection of the respective population's geography, chronology and genetics.
| Dokumententyp: | Zeitschriftenartikel |
|---|---|
| Fakultät: | Tiermedizin |
| Themengebiete: | 600 Technik, Medizin, angewandte Wissenschaften > 610 Medizin und Gesundheit |
| ISSN: | 2352-409X |
| Sprache: | Englisch |
| Dokumenten ID: | 81675 |
| Datum der Veröffentlichung auf Open Access LMU: | 15. Dez. 2021, 14:59 |
| Letzte Änderungen: | 15. Dez. 2021, 14:59 |
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