On January 15,the Institute of Vertebrate Paleontology and Paleoanthropology of the Chinese Academy of Sciences A research paper jointly led by Northwestern University and Hunan Institute of cultural relics and archaeology,entitled"accurate identification of incomplete skulls and maternal genetic history of East Asian leopards in Laosicheng site,Hunan Province,China,and provides insights into maternal genetic history of East Asian leopards,",Published online in zoological research.In this study,ancient DNA data were obtained from two animal skulls at Laosicheng site in Hunan Province,and two mitochondrial genome data were obtained.The skulls of the two animals were identified as North China leopards by morphology(three-dimensional reconstruction of CT scans)and molecular biology.Further studies have found that East Asian leopards can be clearly divided into three major subgroups:Northeast leopard,North China leopard and South China leopard(Figure 1).This achievement provides an example of a combination of morphological and genetic methods for the accurate identification of mammalian remains in archaeological sites,and is of great significance for exploring the maternal genetic history of leopards in East Asia.
Laosicheng site,located in Xiangxi Tujia and Miao Autonomous Prefecture,Hunan Province,is the political,economic,military and cultural center of Peng's Tusi in Yongshun from the fifth year of Shaoxing in the Southern Song Dynasty(1135)to the second year of Yongzheng in the Qing Dynasty(1724).A large number of animal bones were unearthed at the archaeological site,providing an opportunity to explore the composition of animal groups in the area before the mid-Qing Dynasty.Of the more than 10000 identifiable bone specimens found,two were mutilated mammalian skulls that were more controversial.
The study used micro CT technology to scan the broken skull and analyze the morphological data.The results showed that the characteristics of auditory vesicles and mastoids in the skulls of the two animals were highly similar to those of Felidae animals.So the CT scan concluded that the skulls belonged to cats.However,because of the skull's deformity,the morphological identification could not make further clear species identification results.In this case,the researchers used ancient DNA methods to obtain high-quality mitochondrial whole genome data from two skull samples.The results of systematic and genetic distance analysis showed that the skulls of the two animals came from Panthera pardus japonensis(Figures 1,2 and 3).
Earlier,the International Union for conservation of nature's feline expert group classified North China leopards as P.P.orientalis.This study shows that Amur leopards,North China leopards and South China leopards(P.P.delacouri)in East Asia are clearly divided into three different subgroups,corresponding to the geographical locations of northern,central and southern East Asia,respectively(Figure 1).The study calculated the mutation rate of mitochondrial genome data and found that the differentiation time of northeast leopard,North China leopard and South China leopard was about 155000 years ago.These results provide new insights into the maternal genetic history of leopards in East Asia.
Archaeological evidence suggests that about 600 to 300 years ago,leopard populations around the Laosicheng site in Hunan Province were abundant,which is quite different from the distribution of leopard populations today.Population history analysis shows that the effective population size of leopards has been declining for the past 30000 years.The rapid decline in Leopard populations over the past few centuries is more likely due to human activity.
The research work is supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China,the national key R&D plan and the Chinese Academy of Sciences.
Figure 1.Leopard distribution in eastern Eurasia
Figure 2.Comparison of genetic distances between Laosicheng 1 sample and leopard species
Figure 3.Leopard Bayes tree based on mitochondrial genome(mainly showing the eastern Eurasian population)
