Early Holocene chicken domestication in northern China

Abstract

Chickens represent by far the most important poultry species, yet the number, locations, and timings of their domestication have remained controversial for more than a century. Here we report ancient mitochondrial DNA sequences from the earliest archaeological chicken bones from China, dating back to ∼ 10,000 B.P. The results clearly show that all investigated bones, including the oldest from the Nanzhuangtou site, are derived from the genus Gallus, rather than any other related genus, such as Phasianus. Our analyses also suggest that northern China represents one region of the earliest chicken domestication, possibly dating as early as 10,000 y B.P. Similar to the evidence from pig domestication, our results suggest that these early domesticated chickens contributed to the gene pool of modern chicken populations. Moreover, our results support the idea that multiple members of the genus Gallus, specifically Gallus gallus and Gallus sonneratii contributed to the gene pool of the modern domestic chicken. Our results provide further support for the growing evidence of an early mixed agricultural complex in northern China.

Keywords: ancient DNA; chicken; domestication; species origin.

Fig. 1.

Examples of ancient chicken bones and localities of all investigated samples. (A) Map of China showing the location of the four archaeological sites (red dots). (B) Typical ancient chicken bones unearthed in northern China. (C) Close-up of the Yellow River area from which the samples originate. The sites are marked with yellow dots with white asterisks.

Fig. 2.

Haplotype distribution illustrated by median-joining network analysis. Each haplotype is represented by a circle, with the area of the circle proportional to the haplotype’s frequency. Different colors indicate samples originating from different species, with deep green indicating domestic chicken breeds and red indicating red jungle fowls, yellow ancient chicken specimens, purple G. lafayetii, brown G. sonneratii, and light green G. varius. Haplotypes inferred by the network analysis—but not observed in the dataset—are indicated by small gray dots.

Fig. 3.

Haplotype composition of domestic chicken in different geographic areas at different time points. Haplotype composition for each region and each period are indicated by corresponding pie charts. The inset shows the geographical areas defined. Numbers 1–12 show the provenance of ancient specimens, corresponding to the Nanzhuangtou site, Cishan site, Wangyin site, and Jiuliandun Chu Tombs in China (1–4); Valduno, La Cartuja, and Albarracin in Spain (5–7); El Arenal 1 and Hanga Hahave, Easter Island (8–9); and Puu Lanai Ranch Site, Luala'i, and Waimea and Pelekane site in Hawaii (10–12).