Investigating the Global Dispersal of Chickens in Prehistory Using Ancient Mitochondrial DNA Signatures

Abstract

Data from morphology, linguistics, history, and archaeology have all been used to trace the dispersal of chickens from Asian domestication centers to their current global distribution. Each provides a unique perspective which can aid in the reconstruction of prehistory. This study expands on previous investigations by adding a temporal component from ancient DNA and, in some cases, direct dating of bones of individual chickens from a variety of sites in Europe, the Pacific, and the Americas. The results from the ancient DNA analyses of forty-eight archaeologically derived chicken bones provide support for archaeological hypotheses about the prehistoric human transport of chickens. Haplogroup E mtDNA signatures have been amplified from directly dated samples originating in Europe at 1000 B.P. and in the Pacific at 3000 B.P. indicating multiple prehistoric dispersals from a single Asian centre. These two dispersal pathways converged in the Americas where chickens were introduced both by Polynesians and later by Europeans. The results of this study also highlight the inappropriate application of the small stretch of D-loop, traditionally amplified for use in phylogenetic studies, to understanding discrete episodes of chicken translocation in the past. The results of this study lead to the proposal of four hypotheses which will require further scrutiny and rigorous future testing.

New Perspectives in Southeast Asian and Pacific Prehistory

“…The majority of published chicken genetic research undertaken so far has focused primarily on the origins of domestic fowl in Asia and MSEA Liu et al 2006;Kanginakudru et al 2008), and their routes of translocation across Oceania and on to South America (Storey et al 2008(Storey et al , 2010(Storey et al , 2012. Less emphasis has been placed on the timing of their entry and routes of movement across ISEA, due to insufficient data to link specific modern chicken haplogroups to definitive ancient domestication centres and lineages through ISEA and into Oceania ).…”

“…There does seem to be consensus between many researchers that there were multiple domestication centres for chickens in India (Kanginaduru et al 2008), Thailand , South and southwest China and/or surrounding areas (Liu et al 2006), and potentially all the above . terra australis 45 Storey et al (2012) originally argued that Haplogroup E chickens were the first to arrive in the Pacific, and made connections between Polynesian explorers and pre-European origins of Haplogroup E chickens in South America. More recently, found that the majority of modern and all ancient chickens in the Pacific were Haplogroup D, rather than the proposed E. Furthermore, and importantly, east of the Solomon Islands the only ancient D haplotype chickens recorded are those possessing a specific signature termed the 'Pacific or Polynesian motif ' (Figure 15.2).…”

“…BP , 1 pigs and chickens at Teouma on Vanuatu around 3100-2700 cal. BP (Storey et al 2010(Storey et al , 2012Hawkins 2015;Petchey et al 2015) and dogs in Australia at ca. 3500 BP (Macintosh 1964;Milham and Thompson 1976) they must have all been transported through ISEA prior to these dates.…”

Genetic structure in Red Junglefowl (Gallus gallus) populations: Strong spatial patterns in the wild ancestors of domestic chickens in a core distribution range

“…Red Junglefowl still commonly exist in their native habitats (Brickle et al., 2008; Brisbin, 1995) and are clearly distinguishable from domestic chickens (Johnsgard, 1999). Although genetic contributions from multiple Junglefowl species may have played a role in the domestication process (Eriksson et al., 2008; Nishibori, Shimogiri, Hayashi, & Yasue, 2005), archeological and genetic evidence (Fumihito et al., 1994, 1996; Gongora et al., 2008; Storey et al., 2012; Thomson et al., 2014) indicate that Red Junglefowl from Southeast Asia was the primary progenitor of all domestic breeds of modern chickens. In a previous study, we identified substantial haplotype variation in the major histocompatibility complex (MHC) B‐locus of wild Red Junglefowl (Fulton et al., 2016; Nguyen‐Phuc, Fulton, & Berres, 2016).…”

The role of mitochondrial DNA to determine the origin of domestic chicken

“…The origin and domestication of chickens has been of interest to people since at least Roman times (Storey et al, 2012). Based on archaeological and historical evidence the domestication of the fowl is thought to have occurred in multiple, independent centres.…”