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A parasitological analysis was carried out with 29 samples of dog coprolites, soil, and manure obtained from the cultural layer of the Mangazeya settlement (66°42´N, 82°16´E), which dates back to 1601-1670 (end of the Late Holocene). Eggs of the nematode Dioctophyme renale (Goeze, 1782), which infests the kidneys of carnivores, were found in coprolites of dogs (Canis familiaris L., 1758) for the first time in Northwestern Siberia. The nematode species has not been detected in the modern helminth fauna of the region. The giant kidney worm could have entered the region with dogs brought by Russian migrants from European Russia during the development of Siberia. However, the introduction of the helminth did not lead to the formation of a new stable natural focus of dioctophymiasis., (© 2024. Pleiades Publishing, Ltd.)

Horses revolutionized human history with fast mobility 1 . However, the timeline between their domestication and their widespread integration as a means of transport remains contentious 2-4 . Here we assemble a collection of 475 ancient horse genomes to assess the period when these animals were first reshaped by human agency in Eurasia. We find that reproductive control of the modern domestic lineage emerged around 2200 BCE, through close-kin mating and shortened generation times. Reproductive control emerged following a severe domestication bottleneck starting no earlier than approximately 2700 BCE, and coincided with a sudden expansion across Eurasia that ultimately resulted in the replacement of nearly every local horse lineage. This expansion marked the rise of widespread horse-based mobility in human history, which refutes the commonly held narrative of large horse herds accompanying the massive migration of steppe peoples across Europe around 3000 BCE and earlier 3,5 . Finally, we detect significantly shortened generation times at Botai around 3500 BCE, a settlement from central Asia associated with corrals and a subsistence economy centred on horses 6,7 . This supports local horse husbandry before the rise of modern domestic bloodlines., (© 2024. The Author(s).)

The Tip-Tugai Cave (52°59'28.6″ N, 57°00'22.3″ E) is described as a new site with cave hyena Crocuta spelaea fossils. The bone-bearing layer was dated to marine isotope stage (MIS) 3 based on the species composition of the fauna of large and small mammals. Finds of abundant remains of cave hyenas of different ages and bones of large herbivores with hyena gnaw marks indicated that the Tip-Tugai Cave was used as a hyena den in the Late Pleistocene. This is the first cave hyena den described in the Urals., (© 2024. Pleiades Publishing, Ltd.)

Despite the high level of interest, the population history of arctic foxes during the Late Pleistocene and Holocene remains poorly understood. Here we aimed to fill gaps in the demographic and colonization history of the arctic fox by analyzing new ancient DNA data from fossil specimens aged from 50 to 1 thousand years from the Northern and Polar Urals, historic DNA from museum specimens from the Novaya Zemlya Archipelago and the Taymyr Peninsula and supplementing these data by previously published sequences of recent and extinct arctic foxes from other regions. This dataset was used for reconstruction of a time-calibrated phylogeny and a temporal haplotype network covering four time intervals: Late Pleistocene (ranging from 30 to 13 thousand years bp), Holocene (ranging from 4 to 1 thousand years bp), historical (approximately 150 years), and modern. Our results revealed that Late Pleistocene specimens showed no genetic similarity to either modern or historical specimens, thus supporting the earlier hypothesis on local extinction rather than habitat tracking.

The 13 C and 15 N isotope contents in collagen were determined in bones of the small cave bear Ursus (Spelaearctos) rossicus Borissiak, 1930 from three regions of Western Siberia. The bones dated back to marine isotope stage (MIS) 3 and belonged to mature males and females. Some of the samples differed only in δ 15 N. Bears of all samples were from the same trophic level. Trophic shifts were observed between females and males in one region and between males of two regions. The small cave bear of Western Siberia differed from the small cave bear of the Southern Urals in leading a much more predatory lifestyle. The extent of differences between the Ural and Siberian bears corresponded to different trophic levels., (© 2023. Pleiades Publishing, Ltd.)

The 13 C and 15 N isotope contents in bone collagen were analyzed using bones of the small cave bear Ursus (Spelaearctos) rossicus Borissak, 1930 from localities in the Middle and Southern Urals. The bones date from the last interglacial (MIS 5) and glacial (MIS 3) periods. The bones were from males and females aged 3, 4, and >4 years. Sexual, geographical, and chronological differences in 13 C and 15 N contents were studied. Notable gender, geographic, and chronological differences were observed between samples. In the Middle Urals, females led a more predatory lifestyle than males during the interglacial period, and the trophic niches of males and females converged due to an increase in herbivory during the transition to the glacial period. In the Southern Urals, males led a more predatory lifestyle than in the Middle Urals during the interglacial period. The extent of changes in δ 13 C and δ 15 N values in the Southern Urals during the transition was found to correspond to differences between trophic levels., (© 2023. Pleiades Publishing, Ltd.)

Data on the content of 13 C and 15 N isotopes in the collagen of bones of the Ural cave bear (Ursus (S.) kanivetz Verestchagin, 1973) from the North and Middle Urals were analyzed. The bones date from the first half of MIS 3. The bones of newborn individuals, individuals aged 1 year, males and females aged 2, 3, and 4 years, and older than 4 years were studied. Differences in δ 13 С values between age, sex, and geographical samples are not significant. With age, the value of δ 15 N significantly decreases, which is associated with weaning from milk nutrition to independent nutrition. The proportion of meat food in the diet of adult bears in the Middle Urals was higher than in the diet of adult bears in the North Urals. There are no noticeable differences in isotope signatures between males and females of different ages. The large cave bears of the Urals and Europe had a similar type of diet., (© 2023. The Author(s).)

The taxonomic status of the now likely extirpated Korean Peninsula wolf has been extensively debated, with some arguing it represents an independent wolf lineage, Canis coreanus . To investigate the Korean wolf's genetic affiliations and taxonomic status, we sequenced and analysed the genomes of a Korean wolf dated to the beginning of the 20th century, and a captive wolf originally from the Pyongyang Central Zoo. Our results indicated that the Korean wolf bears similar genetic ancestry to other regional East Asian populations, therefore suggesting it is not a distinct taxonomic lineage. We identified regional patterns of wolf population structure and admixture in East Asia with potential conservation consequences in the Korean Peninsula and on a regional scale. We find that the Korean wolf has similar genomic diversity and inbreeding to other East Asian wolves. Finally, we show that, in contrast to the historical sample, the captive wolf is genetically more similar to wolves from the Tibetan Plateau; hence, Korean wolf conservation programmes might not benefit from the inclusion of this specimen., (© 2023 The Authors. Ecology and Evolution published by John Wiley & Sons Ltd.)

First data on the contents of the 13 C and 15 N isotopes in collagen were obtained for 16 bones of the Ural cave bear Ursus (Spelaearctos) kanivetz Verestchagin, 1973 from the Tayn (Secrets) cave (55°25' N, 57°46' E). The bones are dated to the middle MIS 3 and belonged to males and females of about 2 years, about 3 years, and older than 4 years of age. No considerable difference in isotope signatures was observed between individuals of different ages and different genders. Cave bears were assumed to forage independently on plant food from the second year of life. The δ 13 C and δ 15 N values established for the Ural cave bear are close to the values reported for U. (S.) spelaeus ingressus., (© 2023. Pleiades Publishing, Ltd.)

A total of 1250 lower first molars (m1) of voles (Arvicolini) were studied from Late Pleistocene deposits (the radiocarbon dates from rodent bones: 17 100 ± 50 IGAN AMS -9117; 13 255 ± 60 IGAN AMS -9116) of the Imanay Cave (southern Urals, 53°02' N, 56°26' E). Of these, 24 m1 of voles of the subgenus Stenocranius were found to have broadly connected triangles T4 and T5 (Pitymys-Rhombus) at the base of the anteroconid. This structure is characteristic of lower m1 of Lasiopodomys (Stenocranius) gregaloides (Hinton, 1923) from faunas of the second half of the Early Pleistocene and the first half of the Middle Pleistocene. Molars with such morphology have not been found so far in the Late Pleistocene and Holocene locations of Europe and the Urals., (© 2022. Pleiades Publishing, Ltd.)

Research on the evolution of dog foraging and diet has largely focused on scavenging during their initial domestication and genetic adaptations to starch-rich food environments following the advent of agriculture. The Siberian archaeological record evidences other critical shifts in dog foraging and diet that likely characterize Holocene dogs globally. By the Middle Holocene, body size reconstruction for Siberia dogs indicates that most were far smaller than Pleistocene wolves. This contributed to dogs' tendencies to scavenge, feed on small prey, and reduce social foraging. Stable carbon and nitrogen isotope analysis of Siberian dogs reveals that their diets were more diverse than those of Pleistocene wolves. This included habitual consumption of marine and freshwater foods by the Middle Holocene and reliance on C 4 foods by the Late Holocene. Feeding on such foods and anthropogenic waste increased dogs' exposure to microbes, affected their gut microbiomes, and shaped long-term dog population history.

The grey wolf (Canis lupus) was the first species to give rise to a domestic population, and they remained widespread throughout the last Ice Age when many other large mammal species went extinct. Little is known, however, about the history and possible extinction of past wolf populations or when and where the wolf progenitors of the present-day dog lineage (Canis familiaris) lived 1-8 . Here we analysed 72 ancient wolf genomes spanning the last 100,000 years from Europe, Siberia and North America. We found that wolf populations were highly connected throughout the Late Pleistocene, with levels of differentiation an order of magnitude lower than they are today. This population connectivity allowed us to detect natural selection across the time series, including rapid fixation of mutations in the gene IFT88 40,000-30,000 years ago. We show that dogs are overall more closely related to ancient wolves from eastern Eurasia than to those from western Eurasia, suggesting a domestication process in the east. However, we also found that dogs in the Near East and Africa derive up to half of their ancestry from a distinct population related to modern southwest Eurasian wolves, reflecting either an independent domestication process or admixture from local wolves. None of the analysed ancient wolf genomes is a direct match for either of these dog ancestries, meaning that the exact progenitor populations remain to be located., (© 2022. The Author(s).)

The microwear of the non-occlusal surface of incisors (I1, I2) of the small cave bear (Ursus ex gr. savini-rossicus) and Ural cave bear (Ursus kanivetz) from the Pleistocene of the Middle and South Urals is analyzed and compared. Qualitative characteristics of incisor microwear have been shown to be different in these species. In the small cave bear, coarser lesions on the non-occlusal surface of the incisors are observed. Considering the specificity of microwear of non-occlusal tooth surfaces, the data obtained suggest differences in trophic specialization of the species. studied., (© 2022. Pleiades Publishing, Ltd.)

Domestication of horses fundamentally transformed long-range mobility and warfare 1 . However, modern domesticated breeds do not descend from the earliest domestic horse lineage associated with archaeological evidence of bridling, milking and corralling 2-4 at Botai, Central Asia around 3500 BC 3 . Other longstanding candidate regions for horse domestication, such as Iberia 5 and Anatolia 6 , have also recently been challenged. Thus, the genetic, geographic and temporal origins of modern domestic horses have remained unknown. Here we pinpoint the Western Eurasian steppes, especially the lower Volga-Don region, as the homeland of modern domestic horses. Furthermore, we map the population changes accompanying domestication from 273 ancient horse genomes. This reveals that modern domestic horses ultimately replaced almost all other local populations as they expanded rapidly across Eurasia from about 2000 BC, synchronously with equestrian material culture, including Sintashta spoke-wheeled chariots. We find that equestrianism involved strong selection for critical locomotor and behavioural adaptations at the GSDMC and ZFPM1 genes. Our results reject the commonly held association 7 between horseback riding and the massive expansion of Yamnaya steppe pastoralists into Europe around 3000 BC 8,9 driving the spread of Indo-European languages 10 . This contrasts with the scenario in Asia where Indo-Iranian languages, chariots and horses spread together, following the early second millennium BC Sintashta culture 11,12 ., (© 2021. The Author(s).)

Dogs have been essential to life in the Siberian Arctic for over 9,500 y, and this tight link between people and dogs continues in Siberian communities. Although Arctic Siberian groups such as the Nenets received limited gene flow from neighboring groups, archaeological evidence suggests that metallurgy and new subsistence strategies emerged in Northwest Siberia around 2,000 y ago. It is unclear if the Siberian Arctic dog population was as continuous as the people of the region or if instead admixture occurred, possibly in relation to the influx of material culture from other parts of Eurasia. To address this question, we sequenced and analyzed the genomes of 20 ancient and historical Siberian and Eurasian Steppe dogs. Our analyses indicate that while Siberian dogs were genetically homogenous between 9,500 to 7,000 y ago, later introduction of dogs from the Eurasian Steppe and Europe led to substantial admixture. This is clearly the case in the Iamal-Nenets region (Northwestern Siberia) where dogs from the Iron Age period (∼2,000 y ago) possess substantially less ancestry related to European and Steppe dogs than dogs from the medieval period (∼1,000 y ago). Combined with findings of nonlocal materials recovered from these archaeological sites, including glass beads and metal items, these results indicate that Northwest Siberian communities were connected to a larger trade network through which they acquired genetically distinctive dogs from other regions. These exchanges were part of a series of major societal changes, including the rise of large-scale reindeer pastoralism ∼800 y ago., Competing Interests: The authors declare no competing interest., (Copyright © 2021 the Author(s). Published by PNAS.)

The article presents the findings of the paleoparasitological analysis of coprolites from the cave bear (Ursus kanivetz Vereshchagin, 1973). The material for research was obtained during excavations in the Ignatievskaya Cave (Southern Urals, Russia; 54°53' N 57°46' E). The deposits with coprolites date back to the middle of the Late Pleistocene (90 000-30 000 years ago). On the basis of the paleoparasitological analysis, eggs of the nematode characteristic of representatives of Ursidae, namely, Baylisascaris transfuga Rudolphi, 1819, have been established to be present in the coprolites. The eggs are well preserved and have not lost their morphological features. The large cave bear was infested by the nematode B. transfuga. This is the first find of the nematode B. transfuga in Pleistocene-aged sediments and the first find of parasites in coprolites of the cave bear., (© 2021. Pleiades Publishing, Ltd.)

The lower molar (m1) of cave bears from Late Pleistocene localities of the Urals was studied employing the methods of traditional morphometry and geometric morphometrics. On the basis of the size and shape variation of m1, the small cave bear (Ursus ex gr. savini-rossicus) was found to have been a part of the faunas from the caves Skazka, Viasher, Dynamitnaya, Chudesnitsa, and Chernye Kosti. The small cave bear presence in faunas from the Medvezhya, Makhnevskaya Ledyanaya, Asha 1, Ignat'evskaya, and Barsuchii Dol caves was confirmed as well. The species range of the small cave bear encompassed the Northern, Middle, and Southern Urals in the Late Pleistocene. The ranges of the small cave bear and cave bear (Ursus kanivetz) overlapped from the beginning (marine isotope stage 5e) to the middle (middle marine isotope stage 3) of the Late Pleistocene., (© 2021. Pleiades Publishing, Ltd.)

Paleolithic antiquity of parietal art in Ignatievskaya cave, Southern Ural, is supported by its subject (Late Pleistocene animals) as well as by paleontological and palynological data, and 14 C dates from cultural layers associated with artistic activity (17.8-16.3 cal ka BP; association is established by finds of ochre in these layers). However, three 14 C dates of charcoal motifs yielded younger, Holocene ages (7.4-6.0 cal ka BP). In this study, we constrain the age of parietal art in the cave by 230 Th dating of flowstone that brackets the paintings. Flowstone did not form in the cave between c. 78 and 10 ka BP, due to widespread permafrost in northern Eurasia at that time. Our 230 Th dates do not support the middle Holocene age of art in Ignatievskaya cave and are consistent with its Upper Paleolithic antiquity instead., Competing Interests: The authors declare that there are no conflict of interests., (© 2021 The Authors. Geoarchaeology published by Wiley Periodicals LLC.)

Remains of a cave bear were studied from a new locality in the Prokoshev Cave in the Middle Urals (58°13´ N, 58°12´ E). Bones from all regions of the skeleton are present, bones are intact and without traces of human or animal activity. They all belong to the cave bear (Ursus kanivetz Vereshchagin, 1973). An AMS radiocarbon date of 53 375 ± 765 BP, IGAN AMS -8632, was obtained from an adult mandible. The bones belonged to at least 18 individuals, including 4 individuals aged about one year, 1 aged about two years, 1 aged about three years, and 12 individuals over four years of age. Three skulls belonged to males and seven skulls belonged to females. The analysis has shown that the taphonomic type of this locality is a "mass burial." This is the first "mass burial" of the cave bear in the Urals, found in situ, untouched by humans.

Dire wolves are considered to be one of the most common and widespread large carnivores in Pleistocene America 1 , yet relatively little is known about their evolution or extinction. Here, to reconstruct the evolutionary history of dire wolves, we sequenced five genomes from sub-fossil remains dating from 13,000 to more than 50,000 years ago. Our results indicate that although they were similar morphologically to the extant grey wolf, dire wolves were a highly divergent lineage that split from living canids around 5.7 million years ago. In contrast to numerous examples of hybridization across Canidae 2,3 , there is no evidence for gene flow between dire wolves and either North American grey wolves or coyotes. This suggests that dire wolves evolved in isolation from the Pleistocene ancestors of these species. Our results also support an early New World origin of dire wolves, while the ancestors of grey wolves, coyotes and dholes evolved in Eurasia and colonized North America only relatively recently.

Analysis of mammalian species composition has been performed for eight archaeological sites on the Ustyurt plateau. They date to the range from the middle Subboreal to the middle Subatlantic. The modern species composition of large mammals formed by the end of the Middle Holocene (Subboreal 2) and did not change until the early 20th century. The ungulate species composition and ratio on the plateau showed geographical variation and changed over time. Boars were always rare or absent in the north of Ustyurt. The structure of the ungulate fauna in the north of Ustyurt changed over time. Onager numbers in this area increased and saiga numbers decreased in the middle of the Late Holocene. Significant geographical differences in the structure of ungulate fauna were recorded in the middle of the Late Holocene. The numbers of onagers, goitered gazelles, and argali were higher, whereas the numbers of saigas were lower in the south of Ustyurt than in the north.

Just as the domestication of livestock is often cited as a key element in the Neolithic transition to settled, the emergence of large-scaled reindeer husbandry was a fundamental social transformation for the indigenous peoples of Arctic Eurasia. To better understand the history of reindeer domestication, and the genetic processes associated with the pastoral transition in the Eurasian Arctic, we analyzed archaeological and contemporary reindeer samples from Northwestern Siberia. The material represents Rangifer genealogies spanning from 15,000 years ago to the 18th century, as well as modern samples from the wild Taĭmyr population and from domestic herds managed by Nenetses. The wild and the domestic population are the largest populations of their kind in Northern Eurasia, and some Nenetses hold their domestic reindeer beside their wild cousins. Our analyses of 197 modern and 223 ancient mitochondrial DNA sequences revealed two genetic clusters, which are interpreted as representing the gene pools of contemporary domestic and past wild reindeer. Among a total of 137 different mitochondrial haplotypes identified in both the modern and archaeological samples, only 21 were detected in the modern domestic gene pool, while 11 of these were absent from the wild gene pool. The significant temporal genetic shift that we associate with the pastoral transition suggests that the emergence and spread of reindeer pastoralism in Northwestern Siberia originated with the translocation and subsequent selective breeding of a special type of animal from outside the region. The distinct and persistent domestic characteristics of the haplotype structure since the 18th century suggests little genetic exchange since then. The absence of the typical domestic clade in modern nearby wild populations suggests that the contemporary Nenets domestic breed feature an ancestry from outside its present main distribution, possibly from further South., Competing Interests: We declare no conflicts of interest., (© 2020 The Authors. Ecology and Evolution published by John Wiley & Sons Ltd.)

Enamel macro- and microstructure has been studied in the teeth of Merck's rhinoceros (Stephanorhinus kirchbergensis Jäger, 1839), woolly rhinoceros (Coelodonta antiquitatis Blumenbach, 1799), and rhinoceroses from the Tetyukhinskaya (44°35' N, 135°36' E) and Sukhaya (43°09' N, 131°28' E) caves in southern Primorye. The teeth from the caves were identified as the teeth of Merck's rhinoceros. Radiocarbon dating and accompanying animal species enabled the dating of Merck's rhinoceros remains to the Late Pleistocene (marine isotope stages 5-2). These finds mark the extreme eastern boundary of the Merck's rhinoceros species range in the Late Pleistocene. The living range reached the Pacific Ocean coast during a certain time interval within this epoch. This was due to the abundance of tree and shrub vegetation in the area during the Late Pleistocene.

Because of their role in immune defense against pathogens, major histocompatibility complex (MHC) genes are useful in evolutionary studies on how wild vertebrates adapt to their environments. We investigated the molecular evolution of MHC class I (MHCI) genes in four closely related species of Eurasian badgers, genus Meles. All four species of badgers showed similarly high variation in MHCI sequences compared to other Carnivora. We identified 7-21 putatively functional MHCI sequences in each of the badger species, and 2-7 sequences per individual, indicating the existence of 1-4 loci. MHCI exon 2 and 3 sequences encoding domains α1 and α2 exhibited different clade topologies in phylogenetic networks. Non-synonymous nucleotide substitutions at codons for antigen-binding sites exceeded synonymous substitutions for domain α1 but not for domain α2, suggesting that the domains α1 and α2 likely had different evolutionary histories in these species. Positive selection and recombination seem to have shaped the variation in domain α2, whereas positive selection was dominant in shaping the variation in domain α1. In the separate phylogenetic analyses for exon 2, exon 3, and intron 2, each showed three clades of Meles alleles, with rampant trans-species polymorphism, indicative of the long-term maintenance of ancestral MHCI polymorphism by balancing selection.

The vertebrate fauna from the cave deposits in Imanai Cave in the Southern Urals (53°02' N, 56°26'E) has been studied. It contains 715 bones that belonged to at least 11 individuals of fossil lion (Panthera (Leo) ex gr. fossilis-spelaea). It has been established that this is one of the largest Eurasian burial sites of fossil lions. The bones were accumulated due to the natural death of animals inside the cave. The age and sex estimations have shown that at least six adult males and five adult females died there. According to the accompanying fauna, radiocarbon, geochemical, and mineralogical analyses and archaeological finds, the interval of the lion bone accumulation is determined as the first half to middle of Late Pleistocene (OIS 5-3).

The study deals with a new sample of the mammalian fossils from the Pleistocene deposits of the Ignatievskaya Cave in Southern Urals (54°53' N, 57°46' E). Among the rodent fossils, the teeth of red squirrel (Sciurus vulgaris) and forest dormouse (Dryomys nitedula) have been identified. The enamel differentiation quotient (SDQ) of the water vole teeth matches the Arvicola terrestris species from locations of the end of Middle and Late Pleistocene (oxygen isotope stages, OIS 6 and OIS 5-2, respectively). The high SDQ value for the water vole and the presence of the squirrel and dormouse in the fauna allow dating the finding near the end of the Middle Pleistocene and beginning of the Late Pleistocene (OIS 6 and OIS 5e, respectively). The widespread open and forest landscapes were inhabited by this fauna.

Background: Sex-biased dispersal is widespread among mammals, including the brown bear ( Ursus arctos ). Previous phylogeographic studies of the brown bear based on maternally inherited mitochondrial DNA have shown intraspecific genetic structuring around the northern hemisphere. The brown bears on Hokkaido Island, northern Japan, comprise three distinct maternal lineages that presumably immigrated to the island from the continent in three different periods. Here, we investigate the paternal genetic structure across northeastern Asia and assess the connectivity among and within intraspecific populations in terms of male-mediated gene flow., Results: We analyzed paternally inherited Y-chromosomal DNA sequence data and Y-linked microsatellite data of 124 brown bears from Hokkaido, the southern Kuril Islands (Kunashiri and Etorofu), Sakhalin, and continental Eurasia (Kamchatka Peninsula, Ural Mountains, European Russia, and Tibet). The Hokkaido brown bear population is paternally differentiated from, and lacked recent genetic connectivity with, the continental Eurasian and North American populations. We detected weak spatial genetic structuring of the paternal lineages on Hokkaido, which may have arisen through male-mediated gene flow among natal populations. In addition, our results suggest that the different dispersal patterns between male and female brown bears, combined with the founder effect and subsequent genetic drift, contributed to the makeup of the Etorofu Island population, in which the maternal and paternal lineages show different origins., Conclusions: Brown bears on Hokkaido and the adjacent southern Kuril Islands experienced different maternal and paternal evolutionary histories. Our results indicate that sex-biased dispersal has played a significant role in the evolutionary history of the brown bear in continental populations and in peripheral insular populations, such as on Hokkaido, the southern Kuril Islands, and Sakhalin.

Much of the fossil record for dogs consists of mandibles. However, can fossil canid mandibles be reliably identified as dogs or wolves? 3D geometric morphometric analysis correctly classifies 99.5% of the modern dog and wolf mandibles. However, only 4 of 26 Ust'-Polui fossil mandibles, a Russian Arctic site occupied from 250BCE to 150CE, were identified as dogs and none of the 20 Ivolgin mandibles, an Iron Age site in southern Russia, were identified as dogs. Three of the Ust'-Polui mandibles and 8 of the Ivolgin mandibles were identified as wolves. In contrast, all 12 Ivolgin skulls and 5 Ust'-Polui skulls were clearly identified as dogs. Only the classification of the UP6571 skull as a dog (Dog Posterior Probability = 1.0) was not supported by the typical probability. Other evidence indicates these canids were domesticated: they were located within human dwellings, remains at both sites have butchery marks indicating that they were consumed, and isotope analysis of canid and human remains from Ust'-Polui demonstrate that both were consuming freshwater protein; indicating that the humans were feeding the canids. Our results demonstrate that the mandible may not evolve as rapidly as the cranium and the mandible is not reliable for identifying early dog fossils.

An M1 tooth of Asian black bear (Ursus (Euarctos) thibetanus G. Cuvier, 1823) was found in deposits of the Tetyukhinskaya cave (Middle Sikhote-Alin, 44°35'N, 135°36'E). This finding is the first reliable evidence of Asian black bear's presence in Pleistocene of Primorye. Its morphological and morphometric descriptions are given. The period of inhabitation of U. (E.) thibetanus determined based on the radiocarbon date obtained during the study of the tooth, is 39 874 ± 133 BP (NSK-850, UGAMS-21786), which corresponds to the middle of Marine Isotope Stage 3 (MIS 3) of Late Pleistocene. The composition of ancient theriofauna indicates the existence of wide variety of landscapes in Primorye in the middle of Late Pleistocene. A refugium of forest fauna, in which species of taiga, nemoral, and Central Asian mountain-forest theriocomplexes were present, was located in southern Primorye in Late Pleistocene.

Bone remains of birds from a location of the middle Subboreal period and from three locations of the early Subatlantic period were studied on the Ustyurt plateau (Kazakhstan). Three out of 17 avian species that have been identified (Phalacrocorax pygmaeus, Falco peregrinus, and Nyctea scandiaca) proved to be absent in the modern fauna of the region. Our data on the bird fauna of the Ustyurt Plateau in the second half of the Middle Holocene and at the beginning of the Late Holocene indicate that, in that time, the migration routes of the little cormorant, peregrine, and snowy owl passed across the Ustyurt territory and the wintering sites of peregrine and snowy owl were more extensive and were also situated in Ustyurt. In the second half of the Late Holocene, the number of wintering sites of these species diminished and their migration routes have been altered.

The mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) control region (198- to 598-bp) of four ancient Canis specimens (two Canis mandibles, a cranium, and a first phalanx) was examined, and each specimen was genetically identified as Japanese wolf. Two unique nucleotide substitutions, the 78-C insertion and the 482-G deletion, both of which are specific for Japanese wolf, were observed in each sample. Based on the mtDNA sequences analyzed, these four specimens and 10 additional Japanese wolf samples could be classified into two groups- Group A (10 samples) and Group B (4 samples)-which contain or lack an 8-bp insertion/deletion (indel), respectively. Interestingly, three dogs (Akita-b, Kishu 25, and S-husky 102) that each contained Japanese wolf-specific features were also classified into Group A or B based on the 8-bp indel. To determine the origin or ancestor of the Japanese wolf, mtDNA control regions of ancient continental Canis specimens were examined; 84 specimens were from Russia, and 29 were from China. However, none of these 113 specimens contained Japanese wolf-specific sequences. Moreover, none of 426 Japanese modern hunting dogs examined contained these Japanese wolf-specific mtDNA sequences. The mtDNA control region sequences of Groups A and B appeared to be unique to grey wolf and dog populations.

Major histocompatibility complex (MHC) genes encode proteins that play a critical role in vertebrate immune system and are highly polymorphic. To further understand the molecular evolution of the MHC genes, we compared MHC class II DRB genes between the Japanese weasel (Mustela itatsi), a species endemic to Japan, and the Siberian weasel (Mustela sibirica), a closely related species on the continent. We sequenced a 242-bp region of DRB exon 2, which encodes antigen-binding sites (ABS), and found 24 alleles from 31 M. itatsi individuals and 17 alleles from 21 M. sibirica individuals, including broadly distributed, species-specific and/or geographically restricted alleles. Our results suggest that pathogen-driven balancing selection have acted to maintain the diversity in the DRB genes. For predicted ABS, nonsynonymous substitutions exceeded synonymous substitutions, also indicating positive selection, which was not seen at non-ABS. In a Bayesian phylogenetic tree, two M. sibirica DRB alleles were basal to the rest of the sequences from mustelid species and may represent ancestral alleles. Trans-species polymorphism was evident between many mustelid DRB alleles, especially between M. itatsi and M. sibirica. These two Mustela species divided about 1.7 million years ago, but still share many MHC alleles, indicative of their close phylogenetic relationship., (© 2015 John Wiley & Sons A/S. Published by John Wiley & Sons Ltd.)

Morphotypic and morphometric analyses of the M2 tooth found in the Late Pleistocene deposits of the Ignatievskaya Cave (southern Urals) demonstrate that this tooth belongs to the dhole (Cuon alpinus Pallas, 1811). This is the first reliable evidence for the presence of the dhole in the Urals. Radiocarbon dating and associated theriofauna allow the tooth to be dated to the first half of the late Neopleistocene or, more precisely, to marine isotope stages (MISs) 3 and 4.

We present the high-quality genome sequence of a ∼45,000-year-old modern human male from Siberia. This individual derives from a population that lived before-or simultaneously with-the separation of the populations in western and eastern Eurasia and carries a similar amount of Neanderthal ancestry as present-day Eurasians. However, the genomic segments of Neanderthal ancestry are substantially longer than those observed in present-day individuals, indicating that Neanderthal gene flow into the ancestors of this individual occurred 7,000-13,000 years before he lived. We estimate an autosomal mutation rate of 0.4 × 10(-9) to 0.6 × 10(-9) per site per year, a Y chromosomal mutation rate of 0.7 × 10(-9) to 0.9 × 10(-9) per site per year based on the additional substitutions that have occurred in present-day non-Africans compared to this genome, and a mitochondrial mutation rate of 1.8 × 10(-8) to 3.2 × 10(-8) per site per year based on the age of the bone.

While many species were confined to southern latitudes during the last glaciations, there has lately been mounting evidence that some of the most cold-tolerant species were actually able to survive close to the ice sheets. The contribution of these higher latitude outposts to the main recolonization thrust remains, however, untested. In the present study, we use the first range-wide survey of genetic diversity at cytoplasmic markers in Siberian larch (Larix sibirica; four mitochondrial (mt) DNA loci and five chloroplast (cp) DNA SSR loci) to (i) assess the relative contributions of southern and central areas to the current L. sibirica distribution range; and (ii) date the last major population expansion in both L. sibirica and adjacent Larix species. The geographic distribution of cpDNA variation was uninformative, but that of mitotypes clearly indicates that the southernmost populations, located in Mongolia and the Tien-Shan and Sayan Mountain ranges, had a very limited contribution to the current populations of the central and northern parts of the range. It also suggests that the contribution of the high latitude cryptic refugia was geographically limited and that most of the current West Siberian Plain larch populations likely originated in the foothills of the Sayan Mountains. Interestingly, the main population expansion detected through Approximate Bayesian Computation (ABC) in all four larch species investigated here pre-dates the LGM, with a mode in a range of 220,000-1,340,000 years BP. Hence, L. sibirica, like other major conifer species of the boreal forest, was strongly affected by climatic events pre-dating the Last Glacial Maximum., (© 2013 John Wiley & Sons Ltd.)

To further elucidate the migration history of the brown bears (Ursus arctos) on Hokkaido Island, Japan, we analyzed the complete mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) sequences of 35 brown bears from Hokkaido, the southern Kuril Islands (Etorofu and Kunashiri), Sakhalin Island, and the Eurasian Continent (continental Russia, Bulgaria, and Tibet), and those of four polar bears. Based on these sequences, we reconstructed the maternal phylogeny of the brown bear and estimated divergence times to investigate the timing of brown bear migrations, especially in northeastern Eurasia. Our gene tree showed the mtDNA haplotypes of all 73 brown and polar bears to be divided into eight divergent lineages. The brown bear on Hokkaido was divided into three lineages (central, eastern, and southern). The Sakhalin brown bear grouped with eastern European and western Alaskan brown bears. Etorofu and Kunashiri brown bears were closely related to eastern Hokkaido brown bears and could have diverged from the eastern Hokkaido lineage after formation of the channel between Hokkaido and the southern Kuril Islands. Tibetan brown bears diverged early in the eastern lineage. Southern Hokkaido brown bears were closely related to North American brown bears.

The extinction of the many well-known large mammals (megafauna) of the Late Pleistocene epoch has usually been attributed to 'overkill' by human hunters, climatic/vegetational changes or to a combination of both. An accurate knowledge of the geography and chronology of these extinctions is crucial for testing these hypotheses. Previous assumptions that the megafauna of northern Eurasia had disappeared by the Pleistocene/Holocene transition were first challenged a decade ago by the discovery that the latest woolly mammoths on Wrangel Island, northeastern Siberia, were contemporaneous with ancient Egyptian civilization. Here we show that another spectacular megafaunal species, the giant deer or 'Irish elk', survived to around 6,900 radiocarbon yr bp (about 7,700 yr ago) in western Siberia-more than three millennia later than its previously accepted terminal date-and therefore, that the reasons for its ultimate demise are to be sought in Holocene not Pleistocene events. Before their extinction, both giant deer and woolly mammoth underwent dramatic shifts in distribution, driven largely by climatic/vegetational changes. Their differing responses reflect major differences in ecology.