Reconstructing the history of a fragmented and heavily exploited red deer population using ancient and contemporary DNA.

ABSTRACT:

Background

Red deer (Cervus elaphus) have been an important human resource for millennia, experiencing intensive human influence through habitat alterations, hunting and translocation of animals. In this study we investigate a time series of ancient and contemporary DNA from Norwegian red deer spanning about 7,000 years. Our main aim was to investigate how increasing agricultural land use, hunting pressure and possibly human mediated translocation of animals have affected the genetic diversity on a long-term scale.

Results

We obtained mtDNA (D-loop) sequences from 73 ancient specimens. These show higher genetic diversity in ancient compared to extant samples, with the highest diversity preceding the onset of agricultural intensification in the Early Iron Age. Using standard

SUBMITTER: Rosvold J 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC3514237 | biostudies-literature | 2012 Sep

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature