Millennia-Long Co-Existence of Two Major European Whitefish (Coregonus spp.) Lineages in Switzerland Inferred from Ancient Mitochondrial DNA

Abstract

Archaeological fish remains are an important source for reconstructing past aquatic ecosystems and ancient fishing strategies using aDNA techniques. Here, we focus on archaeological samples of European whitefish (Coregonus spp.) from Switzerland covering different time periods. Coregonus bones and scales are commonly found in archaeological assemblages, but these elements lack species specific features and thus inhibit morphological species identification. Even today, fish taxonomy is confusing and numerous species and ecotypes are recognized, and even more probably existed in the past. By targeting short fragments of the mitochondrial d-loop in 48 morphologically identified Coregonus scales and vertebrae from 10 archaeological sites in Switzerland, endogenous d-loop sequences were found in 24 samples from one Neolithic, two Roman, and four Medieval sites. Two major mtDNA clades, C and N, known from contemporary European whitefish populations were detected, suggesting co-occurrence for at least 5000 years. In the future, NGS technologies may be used to explore Coregonus or other fish species and ecotype diversity in the past to elucidate the human impact on lacustrine/limnic environments.

Comparison and optimization of genetic tools used for the identification of ancient fish remains recovered from archaeological excavations and museum collections in the Mediterranean region

“…Several studies have also demonstrated variation in DNA preservation between archaeological sites and environments (Burger, Hummel, Herrmann, & Henke, 1999;Kistler, Ware, Smith, Collins, & Allaby, 2017). The environmental conditions in which fish remains are buried is particularly influential on the extent to which DNA is preserved (Alonso, Häberle, Plogmann, Schibler, & Schlumbaum, 2017;Speller et al, 2012).…”

Fish exploitation in medieval and early modern Switzerland: Evidence from the ichthyoarchaeological record and historical sources

“…Plogmann, Schibler, & Schlumbaum, 2017). For historical times, it is assumed that some whitefish species lived exclusively in rivers or migrated into rivers during the spawning season (cf.…”

Ancient DNA is preserved in fish fossils from tropical lake sediments

“…Fish remains from archaeological sites have revealed past trading routes (Star et al, 2017) and details about fishing practices or preferences in consumption (Häberle & Plogmann, 2019), but precisely because of these processes, those remains have become less informative about past community composition or population genetic structure. Additionally, archaeological deposits are often chronologically discontinuous, and the number of animal remains, including fish, available for destructive sampling can be limited (Alonso et al, 2017;Ferrari et al, 2021;Pálsdóttir et al, 2019). In contrast, fish remains from long, depositionally continuous lake records are often available in appreciable quantities (Ngoepe et al, 2023;Dieleman et al, 2015Dieleman et al, , 2019Monchamp et al, 2021;Muschick et al, 2018).…”

“…Several studies have demonstrated the preservation of aDNA in fish remains, primarily from archaeological sites in temperate environments with samples that are hundreds to thousands of years old (Alonso et al., 2017; Atmore et al., 2022, 2023; Butler & Bowers, 1998; Ferrari et al., 2021; Kirch et al., 2021; Martínez‐García et al., 2021; Oosting et al., 2019). Although poor preservation in tropical depositional contexts has been viewed as almost prohibitive to palaeogenetic studies (Wade, 2015), Mergeay et al.…”