Data from: Ancient DNA reveals differences in behaviour and sociality between brown bears and extinct cave bears ...

• Main Authors: Gonzalez-Fortes, Gloria, Grandal-D'Anglade, Aurora, Kolbe, Ben, Fernandes, Daniel, Meleg, Ioana N., Garcia-Vazquez, Ana, Pinto-Llona, Ana C., Constantin, Silviu, De Torres, Trino J., Ortiz, Jose E., Frischauf, Christine, Rabeder, Gernot, Hofreiter, Michael, Barlow, Axel, Fortes, Gloria G.
• Format: Dataset
• Language: English
• Published: Dryad 2016
• Subjects: Ursus arctos; Ursus spelaeus; homing
• Online Access: https://dx.doi.org/10.5061/dryad.cj965; https://datadryad.org/stash/dataset/doi:10.5061/dryad.cj965

Ancient DNA studies have revolutionized the study of extinct species and populations, providing insights on phylogeny, phylogeography, admixture and demographic history. However, inferences on behaviour and sociality have been far less frequent. Here, we investigate the complete mitochondrial genomes of extinct Late Pleistocene cave bears and middle Holocene brown bears that each inhabited multiple geographically proximate caves in northern Spain. In cave bears, we find that, although most caves were occupied simultaneously, each cave almost exclusively contains a unique lineage of closely related haplotypes. This remarkable pattern suggests extreme fidelity to their birth site in cave bears, best described as homing behaviour, and that cave bears formed stable maternal social groups at least for hibernation. In contrast, brown bears do not show any strong association of mitochondrial lineage and cave, suggesting that these two closely related species differed in aspects of their behaviour and sociality. ... : Fortes_et_al_2016_mtDNA_alignmentMtDNA sequence alignment used in Fortes et al. 2016 Mol Ecol. See README for further info. ...