Domestication events in livestock can be studied by comparing modern DNA with ancient DNA (aDNA) from archaeological faunal remains. Investigating the phylogeny history of sheep remains from the Neolithic Spanish site of Cova de Els Trocs, provides an opportunity to gain some insights about their origins. In this work, aDNA recovered from 15 ovine specimens dated between 6000 to 4000 years BP were sequenced by whole genome sequencing (WGS), and mapped against the O. aries modern mitogenome. Complete mitogenomes were restored for 12 ancient samples. Bayesian Inference (BI) and Maximum Likelihood (ML) phylogenetic trees fitting the HKY+G+I model were performed including the mitogenomes of 12 ancient and 74 modern sheep and 4 wild species. All Neolithic samples belong to the mitochondrial haplotype B. Four ancient sheep constituted a clade (89%) with the Viena sheep breed (Karelia), suggesting a complex demographic history of their origins.

Peer reviewed