As part of the domestication process, humans appear to have selectively bred color variants of horses.

The current phylogeographic pattern of European brown bears (Ursus arctos) has commonly been explained by postglacial recolonization out of geographically distinct refugia in southern Europe, a pattern well in accordance with the expansion/contraction model. Studies of ancient DNA from brown bear remains have questioned this pattern, but have failed to explain the glacial distribution of mitochondrial brown bear clades and their subsequent expansion across the European continent. We here present 136 new mitochondrial sequences generated from 346 remains from Europe, ranging in age between the Late Pleistocene and historical times. The genetic data show a high Late Pleistocene diversity across the continent and challenge the strict confinement of bears to traditional southern refugia during the last glacial maximum (LGM). The mitochondrial data further suggest a genetic turnover just before this time, as well as a steep demographic decline starting in the mid‐Holocene. Levels of stable nitrogen isotopes from the remains confirm a previously proposed shift toward increasing herbivory around the LGM in Europe. Overall, these results suggest that in addition to climate, anthropogenic impact and inter‐specific competition may have had more important effects on the brown bear's ecology, demography, and genetic structure than previously thought.

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 35 36 37 38 39 40 41 42 43 44 45 46 47 48 49 50 51 52 53 54 55 56 57 58 59 In this study, new examples of the presence of reindeer in the Cantabrian fringe of the Iberian peninsula are presented, all from the province of Biscay. The aim of this paper is to describe these new fossils, provide direct dates, and update current information on the presence and The new fossil material was measured using standard osteometric techniques. Measurements follow von den Driesch (1976), except for those of the teeth which follow van der Made (1989Made ( , 1996) (see Supplementary Information: part 2). These measurements are compared to other remains 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 35 36 37 38 39 40 41 42 43 44 45 46 47 48 49 50 51 52 53 54 55 56 57 58 59 Iberian reindeer compared to that of the rest of Europe will be the subject of a separate study (Álvarez-Lao, unpublished data).Age-at-death based on dental attrition of the most complete mandibular remains was calculated using Bouchud (1966). A taphonomic analysis of all the new remains was performed using visual osteoscopic observations of the non-dental remains with a binocular lens (TVM) in order to look for anthropogenic modification, following Cáceres (2002) and San Pedro & Cáceres (2011). The Iberian reindeer record New and revised fossil remainsWe provide new evidence of reindeer from five sites in the province of Biscay (Basque Country, northern Spain) (Table 1 and Supplementary Information: Table S1). These new fossils come from both the excavation of new sites (e.g. Arlanpe) as well as from the revision of faunal material from sites in which the presence of the reindeer was previously both unknown (e.g. Bolinkoba) or known (Axlor, Lumentxa, Atxuri) (Figure 1). We also discuss some sites listed in Table 1 for which vague references to reindeer remains can be found in the literature. The description of material proceeds geographically based on the distance from the Pyrenees. From the taphonomic analysis of the remains found at these sites (see below) we can certify that there was human processing of reindeer carcasses at Lumentxa, Atxuri, Axlor and likely also at Arlanpe. From 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 35 36 37 38 39 40 41 42 43 44 45 46 47 48 49 50 51 52 53 54 55 56 57 58 59 At the beginning of this study, we revised the reindeer remains from this site curated at the Arkeologi Museoa (Bilbao) and were only able to find one complete metacarpal, two distal metacarpals and five antler fragments, two of which could be refitted together (in fact they had the same label). The revision of faunal remains from the J.M. Barandiarán collection has yielded 19 new fossils: mostly dental...

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