Mitochondrial DNA analysis shows a Near Eastern Neolithic origin for domestic cattle and no indication of domestication of European aurochs

Abstract

The extinct aurochs (Bos primigenius primigenius) was a large type of cattle that ranged over almost the whole Eurasian continent. The aurochs is the wild progenitor of modern cattle, but it is unclear whether European aurochs contributed to this process. To provide new insights into the demographic history of aurochs and domestic cattle, we have generated high-confidence mitochondrial DNA sequences from 59 archaeological skeletal finds, which were attributed to wild European cattle populations based on their chronological date and/or morphology. All pre-Neolithic aurochs belonged to the previously designated P haplogroup, indicating that this represents the Late Glacial Central European signature. We also report one new and highly divergent haplotype in a Neolithic aurochs sample from Germany, which points to greater variability during the Pleistocene. Furthermore, the Neolithic and Bronze Age samples that were classified with confidence as European aurochs using morphological criteria all carry P haplotype mitochondrial DNA, suggesting continuity of Late Glacial and Early Holocene aurochs populations in Europe. Bayesian analysis indicates that recent population growth gives a significantly better fit to our data than a constant-sized population, an observation consistent with a postglacial expansion scenario, possibly from a single European refugial population. Previous work has shown that most ancient and modern European domestic cattle carry haplotypes previously designated T. This, in combination with our new finding of a T haplotype in a very Early Neolithic site in Syria, lends persuasive support to a scenario whereby gracile Near Eastern domestic populations, carrying predominantly T haplotypes, replaced P haplotype-carrying robust autochthonous aurochs populations in Europe, from the Early Neolithic onward. During the period of coexistence, it appears that domestic cattle were kept separate from wild aurochs and introgression was extremely rare.

Figure 1

Map showing locations of all sites sampled as part of this study. Map showing the relative proportions of aurochs (P and E) and taurine (T) mitotypes in the B. p. primigenius remains sampled in this study, from 34 European and 3 Near Eastern archaeological sites. Sample size is proportional to the area of the pie-circles indicated.

Figure 2

Reduced control region network of the 51 P B. p. primigenius sequences obtained. The network is for positions 15 903–16 313 of the control region of the mitochondria, as denoted in the cattle mitochondrial genome sequence (Anderson et al. 1982).

Figure 3

Neighbour-joining tree of ancient aurochs and extant domestic cattle mitochondrial haplogroups. Unrooted tree based on 361 bp of the control region. Bootstrap values (threshold of 60% after 1000 replicates) are reported on the nodes. T denotes taurine sequences (including T, T1, T2, T3 and T4 individuals determined from concordance with reference sequences (Mannen et al. 1998; Troy et al. 2001)); Z denotes zebu sequences (including Z1 and Z2 individuals determined from concordance with reference sequences (Baig et al. 2005)); P denotes representative aurochs-like sequences from this study; EIL4 (E) is the novel aurochs sequence from an Early Neolithic site in Germany. The branch leading to the three outgroups, yak (B. grunniens), gaur (B. gaurus) and European bison (B. bonasus), indicates the ancestral node of the cattle groups. Scale bar denotes units of genetic distance.