The study of archaic DNA brings new insights. Currently, scientists are focused on two personalities working at the German Max Planck Institute, namely Cosimo Post and Svante Pääb (Pääbo received the Nobel Prize last year for his work in the field of paleogenetics – late order.)focused on how the distribution of populations and their genetic profile changed after the Last Glacial Maximum (LGM).
I.e. after the ice age climatic event roughly 24 to 20 thousand years ago. So it was the last peak of the last ice age.
| Pääbo received the Nobel Prize for discoveries in evolutionary genetics and for the development of paleogenetics, bringing new insights into human history. He documented, for example, repeated interbreeding between Neanderthals and anatomically modern humans. |
The scientists already had sketches of the “genetic history” of Europe prepared from a previous study. Now, thanks to new collection methods, they have obtained more complete samples and significantly added to the construction of the European genetic tree.
Swedish evolutionary geneticist Svante Pääbo received the Nobel Prize for Medicine
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“The Last Glacial Maximum represented a critical bottleneck for European populations. Part of Europe was covered by a glacier and permafrost (permanently frozen soil) reached our territory, the climate cooled significantly, there was more drought. Groups of people changed and migrated and at the same time continued to develop – perhaps even with new genes,” stated Jiří Svoboda from the Institute of Archeology of the Academy of Sciences of the Czech Republic in Brno, who for three decades has been involved not only in the research of remains from Dolní Věstony and Pavlov.
Drawing reconstruction of the triple grave from Dolní Věstony
The “municipal cluster” was gone
It was the remains of three men from the Dolní Věstonice II location that added a fragment to the genetic map of Europe. A complete analysis of their genome and comparison with other remains showed that after the last glacial maximum, the genetic trace of our hunters from Dolní Věstony and Pavlov disappeared.
According to Svoboda, the prevailing hypothesis as to why this happened is currently ecological. “Under the pressure of that glacial maximum. In the territory of the Czech Republic, vegetation thinned out and animal herds left, meaning sources of sustenance dwindled. Whether other populations participated in this cannot yet be proven,” he noted.
Research of the triple grave in Dolní Věstonice in 1986
And while traces of the so-called Vestonic cluster disappeared, other populations thrived.
The new Nobel laureate Pääbo also researched the DNA of South Moravian mammoth hunters
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“We recognized a new genetic profile of some Western European individuals of the Gravettian culture, which is different from their contemporaries in the region of Central and Southern Europe, i.e. our so-called mammoth hunters. Their gene pool spread towards northern and northeastern Europe after the LGM,” explained Svoboda.
| The Gravettian culture, or gravettien, is an archaeological culture that occupied the middle part of the Young Paleolithic (approximately 30,000 to 20,000 years ago; its center of gravity was approximately 27,000 to 24,000 years ago). The period is named after the locality of the same name, La Gravette (Dordogne, France). |
Another significant genetic change was discovered by the researchers in southern Europe, where migrations and local replacement within human groups took place even during the LGM, i.e. the exchange and thus the difference of genes.
Planning the procedure for taking a sample from a man’s skull
According to Svoboda, in the last phase of the research, more samples were analyzed from Italy, where a lot of anthropological findings are also available. This gave rise to this “fine-grained” view of population movements in the Mediterranean.
Overall, thanks to more detailed data, the researchers succeeded in distinguishing Western European and Eastern European hunter-gatherers.
Do not damage the samples
When collecting archaic DNA, researchers “contend” with the deterioration of the remains over thousands of years, as well as the contamination of newer DNA that may have been transferred during handling. They then have to separate this in the analyses.
“Additional samples from our fossils were taken in 2017 from the petrous bone, i.e. the hardest skull bone, whose internal structure is best protected against the effects of the external environment,” said Sandra Sázelová from the Institute of Archeology of the Academy of Sciences of the Czech Republic in Brno, co-author of the international study.
Anthropological study of the material from the triple grave in Dolní Věstonice
“Thanks to the microCT images created in cooperation with the Max Planck Institute in Leipzig, we were able to use a 3D model of the petrosal bones of all three studied individuals. We were able to print the 3D model and design the sampling probe guide on it, thus minimizing the extent of damage to the surrounding structures of the middle and inner ear, which is thus left for further investigation,” she mentioned.
Detail of direct sampling from a man’s skull
Archaeologist Vilém Gebauer during the conservation of one of the skulls of individuals from the triple grave in Dolní Věstonice
Research of the triple grave in Dolní Věstonice in 1986
Archive picture from the research of the triple grave in Dolní Věstonice in 1986
Research of the triple grave in Dolní Věstonice in 1986
Research of the triple grave in Dolní Věstonice in 1986
Vestonic Venus and her false sisters
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