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

北德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，研究阿根廷西部长期狩猎大型猎物的影响。先前关于狩猎原驼（一种喇嘛）的学术研究表明，狩猎采集者能够在过去4,000年中持续狩猎该物种。这种模式是独特的，因为大多数长期狩猎大型野生动物的考古研究表明，人们过度狩猎猎物种群，导致严重下降。是什么因素使人们能够在干旱地区长期可持续地狩猎大型猎物？对原住民古代DNA（aDNA）的分析将使考古学家能够了解狩猎采集者，在这种情况下，大型游戏的相互作用，这是相关的狩猎实践（当代和考古）在世界上许多其他地区。该地区的原驼和人口是迁徙的，在夏季利用安第斯河谷的生产力;因此，这项研究的一个重要方面是确定是否迁移的地理组成部分有助于可持续狩猎的能力。研究小组将使用新的方法进行DNA分析，这在考古学中是前所未有的。因此，这项研究代表了一个实质性的进步，通过使用新的方法，可以用来研究人类狩猎的大型游戏在世界上许多地区。当考古学家关注人口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。.其结果将是对在敏感的干旱环境中长期狩猎的影响进行全面研究。这项研究特别有趣，因为那里的狩猎采集者似乎已经找到了如何可持续狩猎的方法。了解这一过程对管理今天的迁徙物种具有潜在的影响。沃尔弗顿博士和他的研究小组将研究狩猎对原驼种群遗传学的影响;此外，在过去的4000年里，原驼种群是否在地理上保持联系将通过分析aDNA来研究。这项研究将在北德克萨斯大学的aDNA实验室进行，样本来自阿根廷南部门多萨省。狩猎采集者在研究区域占据了干旱的安第斯悬崖的沙漠和草原环境，今天被迁徙的牧民占据。因此，这项研究将过去的狩猎采集者与当代的牧场主联系起来，后者在低地和安第斯河谷之间使用相同的季节性迁徙模式。其结果将是一个跨学科的数据集，可以与自然地理，石器资源使用，动物骨骼稳定同位素分析，考古植物学分析以及随着时间的推移对遗址位置的研究的现有数据相结合。该研究将主要在北德克萨斯大学进行，它代表了考古学中aDNA分析的实质性进步，并将让学生参与项目的各个阶段。

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.