Investigating the global dispersal of chickens in prehistory using ancient mitochondrial DNA signatures.

ABSTRACT: Data from morphology, linguistics, history, and archaeology have all been used to trace the dispersal of chickens from Asian domestication centers to their current global distribution. Each provides a unique perspective which can aid in the reconstruction of prehistory. This study expands on previous investigations by adding a temporal component from ancient DNA and, in some cases, direct dating of bones of individual chickens from a variety of sites in Europe, the Pacific, and the Americas. The results from the ancient DNA analyses of forty-eight archaeologically derived chicken bones provide support for archaeological hypotheses about the prehistoric human transport of chickens. Haplogroup E mtDNA signatures have been amplified from directly dated samples originating in Europe at 1000 B.

SUBMITTER: Storey AA 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC3405094 | biostudies-literature | 2012

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature