2024-03-29T13:29:58Zhttp://digital.csic.es/dspace-oai/requestoai:digital.csic.es:10261/1588452019-07-15T12:36:54Zcom_10261_19com_10261_7col_10261_272
Roman dogs from the Iberian Peninsula and the Maghreb – A glimpse into their morphology and genetics
Pires, Ana Elisabete
Detry, Cleia
Fernández-Rodríguez, Carlos
Valenzuela-Lamas, Silvia
Arruda, A.M.
De Grossi Mazzorin, Jacopo
Ollivier, Morgane
Hänni, C.
Simões, Fernanda
Ginja, Catarina
Osteometric data
Palaeogenetic data
Dog
Roman Empire
Iberia
North Africa
Mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) sequences
In this study, we integrate osteometric and palaeogenetic data to investigate dog variability in the Roman
Empire in Iberia and North Africa. Osteometry was used to distinguish the statusddomestic or wild, of
approximately 2000 years old Canis remains and to understand to what extent teeth and long bones
varied in dogs in the Roman provinces of Mauretania Tingitana, Lusitania and Tarraconensis. Highthroughput
454-DNA sequencing technology was used to obtain mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) sequences
from 15 bone and teeth samples.We identified five dog haplotypes from partial sequences of the
hypervariable D-loop region. MtDNA haplotypes were grouped into two of the four major clades found in
present-day dogs. We detected three clade A haplotypes in 12 samples from Portugal, Spain and
Morocco, and a single clade D haplotype in 3 samples from Spain. So far, this is the oldest evidence for
the presence of dog clade D in Iberia. It is dated to the late Roman occupation in the 4th-5th cent. AD (ca.
1,600 years ago).
Our results confirm the existence of distinct dog morphotypes in Roman times that also harboured
distinct genetic lineages. According to our data, dogs from distinct mtDNA lineages (clades A and D) have
been continuously bred in the Iberian Peninsula since at least 1600 years ago. Moreover, the sharing of
matrilines between dogs from Spain and North Africa may indicate gene flow. Dogs could have been
easily transported between these regions by humans along maritime and terrestrial trade routes. These
results provide new insights into pre-Roman and Roman domestication practices, confirming selection
practices were extensively applied to dogs during the first centuries of our era in the Iberian Peninsula.
We show that the greater size variability of teeth length (and consequently cranium) and long bone
breadths (and consequently phenotype) of Roman dogs in the Iberian Peninsula, is concomitant with the
detection of diverse and rare maternal lineages. This would reflect an intensification of dog breeding and
the use of non-local dogs for breeding.
This study was funded by the FCT (Fundação para a Ciência e a Tecnologia) within the research PTDC/HIS-ARQ/100225/2008; and AE Pires grant SFRH/BPD/112653/2015; C Detry grant SFRH/BPD/108326/2015 and C Ginja contract grant IF/00866/2014.
Peer reviewed
2018-01-05T09:04:31Z
2018-01-05T09:04:31Z
2017
artículo
http://purl.org/coar/resource_type/c_6501
Quaternary International : https://doi.org/10.1016/j.quaint.2017.11.044 (2017)
1040-6182
http://hdl.handle.net/10261/158845
10.1016/j.quaint.2017.11.044
en
https://doi.org/10.1016/j.quaint.2017.11.044
https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1040618217300666
Sí
none
Elsevier