Paleogenomics Reveals a Loss of Bovine Lineages in Mid-latitude Asia Over the Last 200,000 Years.

ABSTRACT: Bovines have a complex yet poorly understood evolutionary history that is characterized by admixture and diversity loss during the Late Pleistocene. Unraveling this history is challenging in part because deep-time and geographically widespread genetic data are currently limited. In mid-latitude Asia, Denisova Cave, located in the Altai, Siberia, and nearby paleontological sites have yielded a large collection of remains spanning the Middle to Late Pleistocene, many of which are identifiable as bovines via morphology or paleoproteomics. In this study, we screened these bovine bones for ancient DNA and generated mitogenomes, to refine knowledge of Pleistocene bovine diversity in the region. We found that bovines carrying a yak-like mitogenome were common residents of the Altai mountains, alo

SUBMITTER: Gilardet A 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC12628791 | biostudies-literature | 2025 Oct

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature