School of Archeology, Jilin UniversityCai Dawei and his team, College of Animal Science and Technology, Northwest A&F University,Jiang Yu and his team have made important progress in the field of Equusanimal ancient DNA research. The relevant research results were recently published in the top international comprehensive journals. In the journal eLife.
This achievement was the first in the world to successfully obtain high-quality whole-genome data of the extinct Equus animal, Otis's horse. It reconstructed the evolutionary history of Equus and found that Otis' horse belongs to the genus Equus except horses, zebras and donkeys. The fourth subgenus in addition to the three subgenus still existed in the Bronze Age of China, updating our understanding of early wild horses in China and providing important clues for the study of the origin and domestication of domestic horses in China.
Research on the origin and domestication of domestic horses in China has always been a frontier and hot scientific issue of concern to the international academic community. Whether horses were domesticated in China during the Longshan period has been academically controversial. Cai Dawei and his team conducted a comprehensive study of 26 cases of ancient horses unearthed from four archaeological sites in northern China from Longshan to the Bronze Age (3,500 years ago), including the Honghe site in Heilongjiang, the Muzhuliang site in Shaanxi, and the Shatang Beiyuan site in Ningxia. Genome analysis confirmed that these ancient horses belonged to the extinct Austroenchyma, thereby negating the conclusion that Austrophysalis became extinct at the end of the Late Pleistocene to the turn of the Holocene (about 12,000 years ago), and set the extinction time of Austronesia Pushed back nearly 8,500 years.
The study further evaluated the prehistoric group size of O. ostriches, showing that the group size peaked around 74,000 years ago, followed by several major climate changes (especially the Last Glacial Maximum) and the presence of humans. Massive expansion of Eurasia. The population of Austii horses continued to decline due to human predation and stabilized 13,000 years ago. For the first time, research has confirmed that Austronesian horses still survived in the Bronze Age, but did not undergo any domestication, and the population was already quite limited, which can be regarded as a precursor to its extinction. Because this horse species is small in shape, between horses and donkeys, it can easily be identified as a donkey. This study provides new clues for zooarchaeologists and explores the evolutionary history of other large animals since the Holocene. Important references are provided.
It is reported that Cai Dawei and his team recently discovered two more samples belonging to the extinct Austii horse at the Dajinshan site in Shuangliao, Jilin (late Warring States Period - early Western Han Dynasty), further rewriting the extinction time of Austii's horse.
Author: Jilin Daily all-media reporter Bi Weilin Zhang Huiyong
