A sedimentary ancient DNA perspective on human and carnivore persistence through the Late Pleistocene in El Mirón Cave, Spain

• Published in: Nature communications 2025-01, Vol.16 (1), p.107-13, Article 107
• Main Authors: Gelabert, Pere, Oberreiter, Victoria, Straus, Lawrence Guy, Morales, Manuel Ramón González, Sawyer, Susanna, Marín-Arroyo, Ana B., Geiling, Jeanne Marie, Exler, Florian, Brueck, Florian, Franz, Stefan, Cano, Fernanda Tenorio, Szedlacsek, Sophie, Zelger, Evelyn, Hämmerle, Michelle, Zagorc, Brina, Llanos-Lizcano, Alejandro, Cheronet, Olivia, Tejero, José-Miguel, Rattei, Thomas, Kraemer, Stephan M., Pinhasi, Ron
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: 45; 45/23; 631/181/457; 631/208/182; Animal populations; Animals; Archaeology; Carnivora - genetics; Caves; Deoxyribonucleic acid; DNA; DNA, Ancient - analysis; DNA, Mitochondrial - genetics; Fossils; Geologic Sediments; Glacial periods; Historic sites; History, Ancient; Humanities and Social Sciences; Humans; Mitochondrial DNA; multidisciplinary; Neanderthals - genetics; Nucleotide sequence; Phylogeny; Pleistocene; Population dynamics; Science; Science (multidisciplinary); Spain; Stratigraphy
• ISSN: 2041-1723; 2041-1723
• DOI: 10.1038/s41467-024-55740-7

Caves are primary sites for studying human and animal subsistence patterns and genetic ancestry throughout the Palaeolithic. Iberia served as a critical human and animal refugium in Europe during the Last Glacial Maximum (LGM), 26.5 to 19 thousand years before the present (cal kya). Therefore, it is a key location for understanding human and animal population dynamics during this event. We recover and analyse sedimentary ancient DNA (sedaDNA) data from the lower archaeological stratigraphic sequence of El Mirón Cave (Cantabria, Spain), encompassing the (1) Late Mousterian period, associated with Neanderthals, and (2) the Gravettian (c. 31.5 cal kya), Solutrean (c. 24.5–22 cal kya), and Initial Magdalenian (d. 21–20.5 cal kya) periods, associated with anatomically modern humans. We identify 28 animal taxa including humans. Fifteen of these taxa had not been identified from the archaeozoological (i.e., faunal) record, including the presence of hyenas in the Magdalenian. Additionally, we provide phylogenetic analyses on 70 sedaDNA mtDNA genomes of fauna including the densest Iberian Pleistocene sampling of C. lupus . Finally, we recover three human mtDNA sequences from the Solutrean levels. These sequences, along with published data, suggest mtDNA haplogroup continuity in Iberia throughout the Solutrean/Last Glacial Maximum period. Archaeological contexts in caves provide an opportunity to examine human and animal dynamics through climatic events. Here, the authors present sedaDNA of 28 taxa from El Mirón Cave, Spain, including humans as well as reindeer, hyaena, Iberian lynx, falcon, dove, shrew, mole, weasel, woolly rhinoceros, and owl.