| Summary: | Abstract In my PhD thesis, I have focused on studying challenging DNA-samples. In common to all the sub-projects is that the target DNA is badly preserved and the contamination risk from modern samples is high. All the samples under study have been in varying environmental conditions for varying amounts of time. In my research I therefore employed ancient DNA methods that have been developed to extract and amplify poor quality DNA. In all the sub-projects, we were able to gain information that would not have been possible to obtain by studying more conventional biological samples. In article I, we studied whether non-invasively collected placentas of the Saimaa ringed seal (Pusa hispida saimensis) could be utilized in individual identification and population monitoring. The umbilical cord proved to give a reliable genotype of the pup and therefore placentas can be used in genetic monitoring of the population. In article II, I investigated the geographical origin of poorly documented tiger samples from the Finnish museum of natural history. All the samples under investigation could be identified to subspecies levels, and among them I observed for example a Javan tiger (Panthera tigris sondaica), which is extinct. In article III, I studied the domestication history of goose (Anser anser) using bones collected from archaeological sites in Russia. The majority of the studied samples belonged to genetic lines that are typical for domestic goose, but I also observed lines that have not been observed among domestic geese. In article IV, I studied what kind of role reindeer (Rangifer tarandus) has had in the contacts of the Sámi and the Swedes in the Middle Ages, by studying DNA from samples originating from archaeological sites. The genetic results suggest that the samples under investigation are more likely to originate from wild forest reindeer than domestic reindeer. In article V, I investigated whether the reindeer population that lived in the forest region in Tatarstan 4000 years ago had gone extinct or whether ...
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