Department of Archaeology and Palaeoanthropology, University of New England, Armidale, Australia.
PLoS One. 2012;7(7):e39171. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0039171. Epub 2012 Jul 25.
Data from morphology, linguistics, history, and archaeology have all been used to trace the dispersal of chickens from Asian domestication centers to their current global distribution. Each provides a unique perspective which can aid in the reconstruction of prehistory. This study expands on previous investigations by adding a temporal component from ancient DNA and, in some cases, direct dating of bones of individual chickens from a variety of sites in Europe, the Pacific, and the Americas. The results from the ancient DNA analyses of forty-eight archaeologically derived chicken bones provide support for archaeological hypotheses about the prehistoric human transport of chickens. Haplogroup E mtDNA signatures have been amplified from directly dated samples originating in Europe at 1000 B.P. and in the Pacific at 3000 B.P. indicating multiple prehistoric dispersals from a single Asian centre. These two dispersal pathways converged in the Americas where chickens were introduced both by Polynesians and later by Europeans. The results of this study also highlight the inappropriate application of the small stretch of D-loop, traditionally amplified for use in phylogenetic studies, to understanding discrete episodes of chicken translocation in the past. The results of this study lead to the proposal of four hypotheses which will require further scrutiny and rigorous future testing.
从形态学、语言学、历史学和考古学的数据都被用来追踪鸡从亚洲驯化中心到其目前的全球分布的扩散。每一种方法都提供了一个独特的视角，可以帮助重建史前史。本研究通过从古代 DNA 中添加时间成分，并在某些情况下直接对来自欧洲、太平洋和美洲各种地点的个别鸡骨进行直接测年，扩展了之前的研究。从四十八个考古衍生的鸡骨的古代 DNA 分析结果为关于史前人类运输鸡的考古假说提供了支持。在欧洲，1000 年前和太平洋地区 3000 年前的直接测年样本中扩增了 E 型线粒体 DNA 标志，表明从一个单一的亚洲中心发生了多次史前扩散。这两个传播途径在美洲交汇，鸡是由波利尼西亚人和后来的欧洲人引入的。本研究的结果还强调了传统上用于系统发育研究的小片段 D 环的不适当应用，以了解过去鸡的离散转移事件。本研究的结果导致提出了四个假设，这些假设需要进一步审查和严格的未来测试。
