Aboriginal myth meets DNA analysis

Abstract

Aboriginal myth meets DNA analysis DNA analysis of the Australian outback's only palm tree, Livistona mariae, indicates that it originated from seeds brought from the north of the country-a finding backed up by a recently unearthed Aboriginal myth. This neatly illustrates how traditional ecological knowledge might inform modern research. Known as the cabbage palm and found only in Palm Creek, L. mariae (pictured) diverged between 7,000 and 31,000 years ago from its relative Livistona rigida, found 1,000 kilometres to the north (see Nature 483, 248; 2012). Because these dates overlap with human occupancy, the study concluded that the seeds could have been transported south and planted in central Australia (T. Kondo et al. Proc. R. Soc. B http://doi.org/2w6; 2012). The Aboriginal myth came to our attention through a 2013 translation of an 1895 text by German anthropologist and missionary Carl Strehlow (see go.nature.com/kxfyvn). He wrote of a visit to Palm Creek: "There are beautiful 40 to 50 feet high palms here surrounded by gum trees and acacias and the herbs and flowers at their base release a sharp smell. How this palm got into the interior of Australia has not been established yet by science. " Strehlow relates that, according to traditional local beliefs, "the gods from the high north brought the seeds to this place a long time ago".

Development and characterization of 20 polymorphic microsatellite markers for Livistona chinensis R. Br. var. subglobosa Becc., a fan palm in the Ryukyu Archipelago, Japan

“…subglobosa has had a crucial role in traditional shrine rituals and considered that the remote populations were introduced by ancient peoples for cultural uses. A similar establishment of remote populations based on cultural uses by ancient people was also reported in a close relative, Livistona mariae , an endemic fan palm in arid central Australia (Kondo et al ; Bowman et al ). Although these hypotheses were examined with one remote population by random amplified polymorphic DNA (RAPD) analysis (Yoshida et al ), it remains unclear how remote populations became established in such regions because of the limited number of analyzed populations and the low level of polymorphism in RAPD analysis.…”

From Songlines to genomes: Prehistoric assisted migration of a rain forest tree by Australian Aboriginal people

“…gregorii identified overlap between population-level genetic connectivity and regional linguistic variation [ 15 ], and traditional local beliefs of Indigenous dispersal were reported within historical accounts related to the current distribution of L . mariae [ 16 ]. However, these interpretative frameworks lack corroboration from other sources and ethnographic information directly derived from Indigenous collaborations.…”

Human Perceptions of Megafaunal Extinction Events Revealed by Linguistic Analysis of Indigenous Oral Traditions

“…Our focus on faunal whakataukī may have excluded whakataukī that mention ecosystem-wide management. Ecological management events and environmental frameworks may also be more conspicuous in other forms of oral culture, such as storytelling (Bowman et al 2015 ). Alternatively, observation may not necessarily have led to immediate or visible action, perhaps as reflected in the unexpected absence of most large extinct birds in the whakataukī .…”

“…Specifically, we hypothesized that early settlement in close-knit family groupings, where relevance and implied contexts were well-understood within the group would result in shorter whakataukī ; whereas in the changing environments of rapid settlement expansion and the formation of larger sub-tribal and tribal groupings, alliances, and warfare the context of whakataukī would be less well understood and they would, on average, increase in length (Wray and Grace 2007 ). Finally, we predicted that major negative environmental change, such as the loss of critical megafaunal food species, should drive a progression from immediate observations of loss to a generalized understanding of the causes of extinction and finally to the deployment of explicit ecological management practices in keeping with the development of conservation practice (Best 1904 ; Berkes 2008 ; Bowman et al 2015 ).…”