First archaeogenetic results verify the mid‐Holocene occurrence of Dalmatian pelican Pelecanus crispus far out of present range

Abstract

Th e paper presents an evaluation of subfossil bird bones from archaeological and geological sites in Europe that shows that birds of the genus Pelecanus occurred far out of their present range between 7.4 and 5.0 ka BP in the Danish archipelago. Additionally, from other northwestern European regions mid-Holocene records of pelicans are known. However, due to morphological similarities there are diffi culties in species identifi cation. In this paper ancient DNA barcoding techniques were used to clarify the species assignment of one of these records for the fi rst time. Our results show that the bone derives from Dalmatian pelican Pelecanus crispus , a species that today breeds in 15 colonies in the eastern Mediterranean. Th is species identifi cation is especially remarkable since the Dalmatian pelican is known to be less migratory. We demonstrate that the appearance and disappearance of pelicans in northwestern Europe coincide with climate parameters, since all records fall within warm periods. Th is applies for the larger group of Danish records during the Holocene thermal maximum in northern Europe as well as for two more groups of records from central Europe and Britain dating to 1.9 and 0.8 ka ago. Recent ecological research on the Dalmatian pelican shows that the species seems to profi t from the modern climate changes and is starting to expand its range. Our paper documents that under special circumstances short-distance migrant birds are also able to expand their ranges to areas far outside of the former distribution areas. Finally, the Dalmatian pelican is presented as an indicator species refl ecting special climate conditions. Th e present study demonstrates not only the possibility to recover avian DNA from at least 7 ka old bones, but the relevance of such genetic analysis in combination with archaeological data, particularly if bones could not be assigned to species level by morphological features. In such cases, aDNA is shown as a valuable tool for the reconstruction of the avifauna of the past.

Hair, Bone Plates and Coprolites: Ancient DNA Research on Rare Archaeological Materials

“…Thereby, the study gives evidence for the presence of a typical bird species for the eastern Mediterranean and Black Sea area far to the north. We demonstrated that between 7,400 and 5,000 years ago, the number of Dalmatian pelican records in the west Baltic Sea area is so numerous that they probably do not originate from vagrants, but point to a regular expansion of the species range (Nikulina, Schmölcke 2015b). Very probably, these changes in distribution ranges were caused by the warm climate during the mid-Holocene Atlantic period.…”

“…Ancient DNA can also help to distinguish between closely related animal species with nearly identical morphological bone characteristics. This has been demonstrated in fish species (Nikulina, Schmöl-cke 2015a) and in birds (Nikulina, Schmölcke 2015b). In both cases, it was the ancient DNA analysis that finally allowed the reconstruction of the former distribution of the investigated species.…”

“…At the ZBSA, we combined recent archaeozoological data with genetic analysis of bones from pelicans from archaeological sites in northern, western and central Europe, to verify the mid-Holocene distribution of the species Dalmatian pelican (Pelecanus crispus) in the North Sea area (Nikulina, Schmölcke, 2015b). For that, we designed and applied several universal PCR ELENA A. NIKULINA H a i r, B o n e P l a t e s a n d C o p r o l i t e s :…”

“…The focus of the research has been several wild mammal, bird, reptile and fish species (e.g. Sommer et al 2009;Fraser et al 2012;Bray et al 2013;Herman et al 2014;Horn et al 2014;Nikulina, Schmölcke 2015a, 2015b, as well as domestic cattle, pigs and dogs (Nikulina, Schmölcke 2008Scheu et al 2008;Krause-Kyora et al 2013;Zhilin et al 2014;Niemi et al 2015). In particular, the genetic analysis of well-preserved teeth and bones to identify the species, the so-called DNA bar-coding, is reasonably priced and can be undertaken, for instance, in cooperation with the Centre for Baltic and Scandinavian Archaeology (ZBSA) in Schleswig, Germany, with its specialised laboratory for ancient animal DNA (Nikulina, Schmölcke 2010).…”

Paläoklima: Knochen weisen den Weg

“…Breitengrades verbreitet ist, während des HKO auch Norddeutschland und Dänemark besiedelt hat [13]. Fast exotisch mag die durch zahlreiche Knochenfunde in archäologischen Siedlungen nachgewiesene Präsenz des Krauskopfpelikans ( Pelecanus crispus ) im südwestlichen Ostseegebiet klingen [14]. Auch der Wels ( Silurus glanis ) weist im HKO eine weiter nördliche bzw.…”