Collaborative Research: An Inquiry into Turkey Behavioral and Morphological Change

Erin Thornton博士（华盛顿州立大学）和Kitty Emery博士（佛罗里达自然历史博物馆）将与美国、英国、法国和墨西哥的同事沿着进行跨学科研究，记录古代中美洲火鸡饲养和驯化的发展。通过动物驯化的过程，人类对他们所依赖的动物资源的控制力越来越强，并从根本上改变了他们与环境的相互作用和影响。因此，动物驯化的主题对于理解人类与动物和人类与环境关系的演变至关重要。动物驯化在史前时期独立地出现在几个大陆上，但只有一种脊椎动物火鸡在古代北美被驯化。与其他动物的驯化相比，对火鸡的驯化知之甚少。因此，火鸡驯化的历史是我们对畜牧业知识的一个巨大空白，畜牧业是一个涉及古代美洲生存，文化复杂性和人与环境相互作用的重要方面的主题。此外，通过解决驯化对火鸡饮食，形态和遗传学的影响，该研究将提供有关动物如何应对人类互动和操纵的信息。这些信息与许多领域有关，包括人类学，进化和保护生物学以及动物科学。这项跨学科研究促进了美国、墨西哥、英国和法国生物学家和考古学家之间的国际合作。这些伙伴关系还将为包括梅西科在内的几所大学的学生提供研究培训。此外，通过开放存取数据存储和出版，该项目将有助于生物学和考古学/人类学科学的未来研究。桑顿和埃默里博士领导的研究小组将联合收割机结合形态学、骨骼测量、同位素和遗传分析，记录整个古代中美洲火鸡饲养和驯化的发展。考古以及历史和现代火鸡整个墨西哥将进行分析，以确定：1）土耳其驯化的时间和地理起源，2）驯化过程如何影响前哥伦布和当今墨西哥火鸡种群的遗传和物理构成，以及3）野生和家养火鸡的可变方式融入中美洲的社会和经济体系。记录火鸡驯化如何、何时、何地在中美洲展开的基本细节，为解决有关北美动物驯化的文化和环境背景的更大问题提供了一个出发点。例如，古代人口管理动物资源主要是为了养活和供应不断增长的人口，还是被管理的动物更经常用于仪式，宴会或其他精英权力的展示？是否有证据表明在整个中美洲广泛进行火鸡饲养试验，或者家养火鸡是从一个小的初始种群中出现的？在驯化过程中，哪些形态和遗传特征受到选择？

Dr. Erin Thornton (Washington State University) and Dr. Kitty Emery (Florida Museum of Natural History), along with a network of colleagues in the United States, England, France and Mexico, will conduct inter-disciplinary research to document the development of turkey husbandry and domestication in ancient Mesoamerica. Through the process of animal domestication, humans assumed increasing control over the animal resources they relied on, and fundamentally altered how they interacted with and impacted their environment. The topic of animal domestication is therefore of crucial importance to understanding evolving human-animal and human-environment relationships. Animal domestication independently emerged on several continents during prehistoric times, but only a single vertebrate animal, the turkey, was domesticated in ancient North America. Relatively little is known about turkey domestication in comparison to the domestication of other animals. The history of turkey domestication is thus a large gap in our knowledge of animal husbandry, a subject that relates to important aspects of subsistence, cultural complexity, and human-environment interactions in the ancient Americas. Moreover, by addressing the impacts of domestication on turkey diet, morphology, and genetics, the research will contribute information regarding how animals respond to human interaction and manipulation. This information is relevant to many fields including anthropology, evolutionary and conservation biology, and animal science. This interdisciplinary research facilitates international collaboration among biologists and archaeologists in the United States, Mexico, England and France. The partnerships will also provide research training for students from several universities including the Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México (UNAM). Additionally, through open-access data storage and publication, this project will contribute to future research in both the biological and archaeological/anthropological sciences. The research team led by Drs. Thornton and Emery will combine morphological, osteometric, isotopic and genetic analyses to document the development of turkey husbandry and domestication throughout ancient Mesoamerica. Archaeological as well as historic and modern turkeys throughout Mexico will be analyzed to determine: 1) the timing and geographic origins of turkey domestication, 2) how the domestication process influenced the genetic and physical makeup of pre-Columbian and present-day Mexican turkey populations, and 3) the variable ways wild and domestic turkeys were integrated into Mesoamerican social and economic systems. Documenting the basic details of how, when and where the turkey domestication unfolded in Mesoamerica provides a stepping off point for addressing larger questions about the cultural and environmental context of North American animal domestication. For example, did ancient populations manage animal resources primarily to feed and supply growing populations, or were managed animals more often used in rituals, feasts or other displays of elite power? Is there evidence for widespread experimentation with turkey husbandry throughout Mesoamerica, or did domestic turkeys emerge from a small initial founding population? What morphological and genetic traits were under selection during the domestication process?