Ancient DNA Reveals Maternal Philopatry of the Northeast Eurasian Brown Bear (Ursus arctos) Population during the Holocene

Significant palaeoecological and paleoclimatic changes that took place during Late Pleistocene—Early Holocene transition are considered important factors that led to megafauna extinctions. Unlike many other species, the brown bear (Ursus arctos) has survived this geological time. Despite the fact th...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Genes
Main Authors: Boulygina, Eugenia, Sharko, Fedor, Cheprasov, Maksim, Gladysheva-Azgari, Maria, Slobodova, Natalia, Tsygankova, Svetlana, Rastorguev, Sergey, Grigorieva, Lena, Kopp, Martina, Fernandes, Jorge M. O., Novgorodov, Gavril, Boeskorov, Gennady, Protopopov, Albert, Hwang, Woo-Suk, Tikhonov, Alexei, Nedoluzhko, Artem
Format: Text
Language:English
Published: MDPI 2022
Subjects:
Article
Chukotka
Ursus arctos
Yakutia
Online Access:http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9689912/
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/36360198
https://doi.org/10.3390/genes13111961
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Summary:Significant palaeoecological and paleoclimatic changes that took place during Late Pleistocene—Early Holocene transition are considered important factors that led to megafauna extinctions. Unlike many other species, the brown bear (Ursus arctos) has survived this geological time. Despite the fact that several mitochondrial DNA clades of brown bears became extinct at the end of the Pleistocene, this species is still widely distributed in Northeast Eurasia. Here, using the ancient DNA analysis of a brown bear individual that inhabited Northeast Asia in the Middle Holocene (3460 ± 40 years BP) and comparative phylogenetic analysis, we show a significant mitochondrial DNA similarity of the studied specimen with modern brown bears inhabiting Yakutia and Chukotka. In this study, we clearly demonstrate the maternal philopatry of the Northeastern Eurasian U. arctos population during the several thousand years of the Holocene.

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