The Use Of "Ancient" DNA For Interpreting Predation And Mammalian Population Dynamics

使用“古代”DNA 解释捕食和哺乳动物种群动态

• 批准号: 1630051
• 负责人: Steve Wolverton
• 金额: $ 5.51万
• 依托单位: University of North Texas
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Standard Grant
• 财政年份: 2016
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2016-09-01 至 2019-08-31
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=1630051&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: Use; Ancient; DNA; Interpreting; Predation

Dr. Steve Wolverton, of the University of North Texas, along with colleagues in Biological Sciences and Geography, will undertake research to study the impact of long term hunting of large game in western Argentina. Previous scholarship on hunting of guanaco (a form of lama) indicates that hunter-gatherers were able to sustainably hunt the species for the last 4,000 years. This pattern is unique in that most archaeological studies of long term hunting of large wild game indicate that people overhunt prey populations, causing serious declines. What were the factors that enabled people to sustainably hunt large game in this aridland context over the long term? Analysis of ancient DNA (aDNA) from guanaco will enable archaeologists to learn about hunter-gatherer, large-game interactions in this context, which is relevant to hunting practices (contemporary and archaeological) in many other areas of the world. The guanaco and human populations in this region were migratory, taking advantage of the productive Andean river valleys during the summer; thus, an important aspect of this research is to determine if the geographic component of migration contributed to an ability to hunt sustainably. The research team will use new approaches in aDNA analysis, previously unexplored in archaeology. Thus, this research represents a substantial advancement through the use of new methods, which can be employed to study human hunting of large game in many areas of the world. The approaches refined in this study will be relevant to the study of aDNA from any species (including humans) in any part of the world when archaeologists are concerned with how populations grew or declined over time. . The result will be a comprehensive study of the impacts of long-term hunting in a sensitive aridland environment. This study is of particular interest because hunter-gatherers there seem to have figured out how to hunt sustainably. Understanding of this process has potential implications for managing migratory species today.Dr. Wolverton and his research team will examine the impacts of hunting on guanaco population genetics over time; in addition, whether or not guanaco populations remained geographically connected across the region during the last 4000 years will be studied through analysis of aDNA. The research will be conducted in the aDNA laboratory at the University of North Texas on samples from southern Mendoza Province, Argentina. Hunter-gatherers in the study region occupied the desert and steppe environments of the arid Andean escarpment, today occupied by migratory herders. The research, thus, links past hunter-gatherers to contemporary ranchers who use the same seasonal migratory patterns between the lowlands and Andean river valleys. The outcome will be an interdisciplinary dataset that can be combined with existing data on physical geography, stone tool resource use, stable-isotope analysis of animal bone, archaeobotanical analysis, and study of site locations over time The research will take place primarily at the University of North Texas, it represents substantial advancement in aDNA analysis in archaeology, and it will involve students in all phases of the project.

北得克萨斯大学的史蒂夫·沃尔弗顿博士将与生物科学和地理学的同事一起进行研究，研究长期狩猎对阿根廷西部大型动物的影响。先前关于狩猎瓜纳科(喇嘛的一种形式)的学术研究表明，在过去的4000年里，狩猎-采集者能够持续地狩猎该物种。这种模式的独特之处在于，大多数对大型野生动物长期狩猎的考古研究表明，人们过度猎杀猎物种群，导致种群数量严重下降。从长远来看，是什么因素使人们能够在这种干旱的环境中可持续地狩猎大型动物？对来自瓜纳科的古代DNA(ADNA)的分析将使考古学家能够在这一背景下了解狩猎-采集、大型动物互动，这与世界许多其他地区的狩猎实践(当代和考古)有关。这一区域的瓜纳科人和人类人口是迁徙的，利用夏季多产的安第斯河谷；因此，这项研究的一个重要方面是确定迁徙的地理部分是否有助于可持续狩猎的能力。研究小组将在DNA分析中使用新方法，这是以前在考古学中未曾探索过的。因此，通过使用新的方法，这项研究代表了一项实质性的进步，可以用于研究世界许多地区的大型猎物的人类狩猎。当考古学家关注种群如何随着时间的推移而增长或下降时，这项研究中改进的方法将与世界任何地方任何物种(包括人类)的aDNA研究相关。。其结果将是对长期狩猎在敏感的旱地环境中的影响进行全面研究。这项研究特别令人感兴趣，因为那里的狩猎-采集者似乎已经找到了如何可持续地狩猎。对这一过程的理解对今天管理迁徙物种具有潜在的意义。沃尔弗顿和他的研究团队将研究狩猎对瓜纳科种群遗传学的影响；此外，将通过分析aDNA来研究瓜纳科种群在过去4000年里是否在该地区保持地理上的联系。这项研究将在北得克萨斯大学的aDNA实验室对来自阿根廷南部门多萨省的样本进行。研究地区的狩猎-采集者占领了干旱的安第斯悬崖的沙漠和草原环境，今天这些环境被迁徙的牧民占据。因此，这项研究将过去的狩猎采集者与当代牧场主联系在一起，后者使用相同的季节性迁徙模式在低地和安第斯河谷之间迁徙。结果将是一个跨学科的数据集，它可以与现有的自然地理、石器资源使用、动物骨骼的稳定同位素分析、考古植物学分析以及随着时间的推移对遗址位置的研究相结合。这项研究将主要在北得克萨斯大学进行，它代表着考古学中aDNA分析的实质性进步，它将涉及该项目的所有阶段的学生。