Multiproxy study of the last meal of a mid-Holocene Oyogos Yar horse, Sakha Republic, Russia

Gravendeel, Barbara; Протопопов, А. В.; Bull, Ian D.; Duijm, Elza; Gill, F.; Nieman, Aline M.; Rudaya, Natalia; Tikhonov, Alexei; Трофимова, С. С.; Reenen, Guido Ba van; Vos, Rutger A.; Zhilich, Snezhana; Geel, B. van

doi:10.1177/0959683614540953

Cited by 13 publications

(6 citation statements)

References 41 publications

Supporting

Mentioning

Contrasting

Order By: Relevance

“…Cusickiella may have been able to expand its distribution northward during glacial episodes with more open vegetation and more soil erosion. The identifications of Cusickiella and Dupontiopsis are a further demonstration of the vast biogeographic range changes of plant and animal taxa that occurred in response to climate change during the Late Quaternary and highlight the non-analog character of the flora (Guthrie, 1990).…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 94%

A multidisciplinary study of a Late Pleistocene arctic ground squirrel (Urocitellus parryii) midden from Yukon, Canada

Langeveld

Mol

Zazula³

et al. 2017

Quat. res.

Self Cite

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Middens (nests and caches) of Late Pleistocene arctic ground squirrels (Urocitellus parryii) that are preserved in the permafrost of Beringia archive valuable paleoecological data. Arctic ground squirrels selectively include the plant material placed in middens. To account for this selectivity bias, we used a multi-proxy approach that includes ancient DNA (aDNA) and macro- and microfossil analyses. Here, we provide insight into Pleistocene vegetation conditions using macrofossils, pollen, phytoliths and non-pollen palynomorphs, and aDNA collected from one such midden from the Yukon Territory (Canada), which was formed between 30,740 and 30,380 cal yr BP. aDNA confirmed the midden was constructed by U. parryii. We recovered 39 vascular plant and bryophyte genera and 68 fungal genera from the midden samples. Grass and other herbaceous families dominated vegetation assemblages according to all proxies. aDNA data yielded several records of vascular plants that are outside their current biogeographic range, while some of the recovered fungi yielded additional evidence for local occurrence of Picea trees during glacial conditions. We propose that future work on fossil middens should combine the study of macro- and microfossils with aDNA analysis to get the most out of these environmental archives.

show abstract

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 94%

A multidisciplinary study of a Late Pleistocene arctic ground squirrel (Urocitellus parryii) midden from Yukon, Canada

Langeveld

Mol

Zazula³

et al. 2017

Quat. res.

Self Cite

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…Meanwhile, genetic metabarcoding might be used to reveal bulk species composition (Taberlet et al 2012). Plant identifications from DNA should complement those from seeds, pollen and phytoliths, enhancing the precision and accuracy of dietary and environmental information (van Geel et al 2011(van Geel et al , 2014Gravendeel et al 2014). Lipids, including lignin-phenols, triterpenoids and sterols, are also good markers of vegetation, especially if combined with reference samples from the sediment where these dung pellets were found (A. Sistiaga Gutiérrez, pers.…”

Section: For Future Researchmentioning

confidence: 99%

Dung in the dumps: what we can learn from multi-proxy studies of archaeological dung pellets

Fuks

Dunseth

2020

Veget Hist Archaeobot

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

A key question in archaeobotany concerns the role of herbivore dung in contributing plant remains to archaeobotanical assemblages. This issue has been discussed for at least 40 years and has motivated several archaeobotanical studies on identifying dung-derived deposition of plant remains. Meanwhile, microarchaeological methods have developed and continue to be developed for detecting dung in archaeological sediments, and multi-proxy methodologies are being used to study the botanical components of dung-associated sediments. Combining these approaches, the authors recently led a study incorporating different botanical proxies (seeds, pollen, phytoliths) with geoarchaeological sedimentary analysis to compare dung pellets and associated sediments. This approach presents a new way to gauge the contribution of dung-derived plant remains in archaeobotanical assemblages, which is further explored in this follow-up paper. The present paper further highlights how multi-proxy archaeobotanical investigation of individual dung pellets can provide information on seasonality, grazing range and herding practices. Their short production and deposition time make herbivore dung pellets time capsules of agropastoral activity, a useful spatio-temporal unit of analysis, and even a type of archaeological context in their own right. Adding different biomolecular and chemical methods to future multi-proxy archaeobotanical investigation of herbivore dung will produce invaluable high-resolution reconstructions of dung microbiomes. Ultimately, unpacking the contents of ancient dung pellets will inform on the species, physical characteristics, diet, niche, and disease agents of the ancient pellets’ producers. Expanded datasets of such dung-derived information will contribute significantly to the study of ecosystem transformation as well as the long-term development of agriculture and pastoralism.

show abstract

“…Additionally, studies of coprolite palynology, especially in North America, have also been used to interpret the prehistoric diet of both human beings and animals and to determine the local vegetation [13–15]. It is clear that pollen and spores incorporated into the stomach contents also reflect the composition of local vegetation and also reflects regional climate [16,17]. The study of the macrobotanical remains from a dung midden of an arctic ground squirrel and horse [17,18] provided information on both the animal’s diet and the local vegetation.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…It is clear that pollen and spores incorporated into the stomach contents also reflect the composition of local vegetation and also reflects regional climate [16,17]. The study of the macrobotanical remains from a dung midden of an arctic ground squirrel and horse [17,18] provided information on both the animal’s diet and the local vegetation. The distribution of herbivorous animals within an ecosystem is often dependent on vegetation composition and its regional distribution [19–22].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Modern botanical analogue of endangered Yak (Bos mutus) dung from India: Plausible linkage with extant and extinct megaherbivores

Basumatary¹,

Singh²,

McDonald

et al. 2019

PLoS ONE

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

The study reports the micro- and macrobotanical remains on wild Yak dung, providing evidence for understanding the diet, habitat, and ecology of extant and extinct megaherbivores. Grasses are the primary diet of the yak as indicated by the abundance of grass pollen and phytoliths. Other associated non-arboreal and arboreal taxa namely, Cyperacaeae, Rosaceae, Chenopodiaceae, Artemisia , Prunus , and Rhododendron are also important dietary plants for their living. The observation of plant macrobotanical remains especially the vegetative part and seeds of the grasses and Cyperaceae is also in agreement with the palynodata. The documented micro- and macrobotanical data are indicative of both Alpine meadow and steppe vegetation under cold and dry climate which exactly reflected the current vegetation composition and climate in the region. The recovery of Botryococcus , Arcella , and diatom was observed in trace amounts in the palynoassemblage which would have been incorporated in the dung through the ingestion of water and are indicative of the presence of perennial water system in the region. Energy dispersive spectroscopy analysis marked that the element contained in dung samples has variation in relation to the summer and winter, which might be due to the availability of the food plants and vegetation. This generated multiproxy data serves as a strong supplementary data for modern pollen and vegetation relationships based on surface soil samples in the region. The recorded multiproxy data could also be useful to interpret the relationship between the coprolites of herbivorous fauna and the palaeodietary, the palaeoecology in the region, and to correlate with other mega herbivores in a global context.

show abstract

Multiproxy study of the last meal of a mid-Holocene Oyogos Yar horse, Sakha Republic, Russia

Cited by 13 publications

References 41 publications

A multidisciplinary study of a Late Pleistocene arctic ground squirrel (Urocitellus parryii) midden from Yukon, Canada

A multidisciplinary study of a Late Pleistocene arctic ground squirrel (Urocitellus parryii) midden from Yukon, Canada

Dung in the dumps: what we can learn from multi-proxy studies of archaeological dung pellets

Modern botanical analogue of endangered Yak (Bos mutus) dung from India: Plausible linkage with extant and extinct megaherbivores

Contact Info

Product

Resources

About