Ancient genomics and the origin, dispersal, and development of domestic sheep

Daly, Kevin G., Mullin, Victoria E., Hare, Andrew J., Halpin, Áine, Mattiangeli, Valeria, Teasdale, Matthew D., Rossi, Conor, Geiger, Sheila, Krebs, Stefan, Medugorac, Ivica, Sandoval-Castellanos, Edson, Özbaşaran, Mihriban, Duru, Güneş, Gülcür, Sevil, Pöllath, Nadja, Collins, Matthew, Frantz, Laurent, Vila, Emmanuelle, Zidarov, Peter, Stoddart, Simon, Boldgiv, Bazartseren, Orlando, Ludovic, Pearson, Mike Parker, Mulville, Jacqueline ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-9392-3693, Askeyev, Igor V., Askeyev, Arthur O., Askeyev, Oleg V., Shaymuratova, Dilyara N., Van den Hurk, Youri, Zeeb-Lanz, Andrea, Arbogast, Rose-Marie, Hemmer, Helmut, Davoudi, Hossein, Amiri, Sarieh, Doost, Sanaz Beizaee, Decruyenaere, Delphine, Fathi, Homa, Khazaeli, Roya, Hassanzadeh, Yousef, Sardari, Alireza, Lhuillier, Johanna, Abdolahi, Mostafa, Summers, Geoffrey D., Marro, Catherine, Bahshaliyev, Veli, Berthon, Rémi, Çakirlar, Canan, Benecke, Norbert, Scheu, Amelie, Burger, Joachim, Sauer, Eberhard, Horwitz, Liora Kolska, Arbuckle, Benjamin, Buitenhuis, Hijlke, Gourichon, Lionel, Bulatović, Jelena, O’Connor, Terry, Orton, David, Jalabadze, Mindia, Rhodes, Stephen, Chazan, Michael, Özkaya, Vecihi, Zeder, Melinda, Atıcı, Levent, Mashkour, Marjan, Peters, Joris and Bradley, Daniel G. 2025. Ancient genomics and the origin, dispersal, and development of domestic sheep. Science 387 (6733) , pp. 492-497. 10.1126/science.adn2094

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Abstract

The origins and prehistory of domestic sheep ( Ovis aries ) are incompletely understood; to address this, we generated data from 118 ancient genomes spanning 12,000 years sampled from across Eurasia. Genomes from Central Türkiye ~8000 BCE are genetically proximal to the domestic origins of sheep but do not fully explain the ancestry of later populations, suggesting a mosaic of wild ancestries. Genomic signatures indicate selection by ancient herders for pigmentation patterns, hornedness, and growth rate. Although the first European sheep flocks derive from Türkiye, in a notable parallel with ancient human genome discoveries, we detected a major influx of Western steppe–related ancestry in the Bronze Age.

Item Type:	Article
Date Type:	Publication
Status:	Published
Schools:	Schools > History, Archaeology and Religion
Publisher:	American Association for the Advancement of Science
ISSN:	0036-8075
Date of First Compliant Deposit:	21 February 2025
Date of Acceptance:	3 December 2024
Last Modified:	21 Feb 2025 14:15
URI:	https://orca.cardiff.ac.uk/id/eprint/176192

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