Traces of goat domestication in the Zagros Mountains

Researchers report early evidence of goat domestication in Iran’s Zagros Mountains. The initial domestication of several species, including goats, occurred in the Fertile Crescent during the Aceramic Neolithic Period, around 9600-7500 BCE. However, the regional centers of such domestication remain unclear. Kevin G. Daly, Melinda Zeder, Daniel Bradley, and colleagues combined ancient genome sequencing and archaeozoological evidence from two sites in the central Zagros Mountains to trace the domestication of the goat (

Capra aegagrus hircus

) from the wild bezoar goat (

Capra aegagrus

). The two sites, Ganj Dareh and Tepe Abdul Hosein, are located in present-day western Iran, and radiocarbon dating indicates that the sites were occupied between 8200 and 7600 BCE. The authors sequenced DNA from bone samples and compared the sequences with modern and ancient goat genomes. The results suggest that initial goat herds were genetically distinct from hunted wild goats and do not show evidence of a severe genetic bottleneck, morphological divergence, or apparent changes in appearance until 7000 BCE. Bone analysis from this transitionary period revealed a selective culling of young male goats consistent with animal husbandry–a finding bolstered by the presence of greater diversity of mitochondrial lineages compared with Y-chromosome lineages. According to the authors, goats from these sites in the Zagros Mountains are likely genetically basal to other domestic goats and may represent the earliest known examples of goat herding.

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Article #2021-00901: “Herded and hunted goat genomes from the dawn of domestication in the Zagros Mountains,” by Kevin G. Daly et al.

MEDIA CONTACT: Kevin G. Daly, Trinity College Dublin, IRELAND; tel: +353857419251; email: <

[email protected]

>; Melinda A. Zeder, National Museum of Natural History, Smithsonian Institution, Washington, DC; tel: 703-626-9118; email: <

[email protected]

>; Daniel G. Bradley, Trinity College Dublin, IRELAND; tel: +353872079451; email: <

[email protected]

>