NEOMATRIX
Our researchers described the genetic identity of the oldest human-made hybrid animal called “kunga”, a 4,500-year-old equid which was bred for warfare in ancient Mesopotamia. The study concludes that kungas were hybrids between female domestic donkeys and male hemippes.
The article is authored by E. Andrew Bennett, Jill Weber, Wejden Bendhafer, Sophie Champlot, Joris Peters, Glenn M. Schwartz, Thierry Grange, and Eva-Maria Geigl.
The third millennium BCE was a pivotal period of profound cultural and genomic transformations in Europe associated with migrations from the Pontic-Caspian steppe, which shaped the ancestry patterns…
Our researchers led a successful analysis of ancient DNA from petrous bones of this extinct Mediterranean species despite the region’s notoriously adverse environmental conditions for DNA preservation. Their…
The latest article by our researchers shows that inbreeding decreased over time and that the decrease appears linked with population size increase enabled by agriculture. The article is…
The newest article by our researchers questions genetic relatedness among co-burials in domestic buildings using 59 ancient genomes from Neolithic Anatolia. The results suggest non-biological kinship patterns in…