Ovibos moschatus -- a survivor

[Jacques Cinq-Mars]

All,

For your information.

As has been done for other genera/species (see HERE, for example), the tools of molecular biology are used in the following paper to study  and illustrate the loss of genetic diversity that occurred to Ovibos moschatus at or around the Late Pleistocene/Early Holocene boundary, throughout the unglaciated Arctic regions.

MacPhee, Ross D.E., Alexei N. Tikhonov, Dick Mol, and Alex D. Greenwood. 2005. Late Quaternary loss of genetic diversity in muskox (Ovibos). BMC Evolutionary Biology 5(49): (in press).

Abstract:

Background: The modern wildherd of the tundra muskox (Ovibos moschatus) is native only to the New World (northern North America and Greenland), and its genetic diversity is notably low. However, like several other megafaunal mammals, muskoxen enjoyed a holarctic distribution during the late Pleistocene. To investigate whether collapse in range and loss of diversity might be correlated, we collected mitochondrial sequence data (hypervariable region and cytochrome b) from muskox fossil material recovered from localities in northeastern Asia and the Arctic Archipelago of northern North America, dating from late Pleistocene to late Holocene, and compared our results to existing databases for modern muskoxen. 

Results: Two classes of haplotypes were detected in the fossil material. “Surviving haplotypes” (SHs), closely similar or identical to haplotypes found in modern muskoxen and ranging in age from ~22,000 to ~160 yrbp, were found in all New World samples as well as some samples from northeastern Asia. “Extinct haplotypes” (EHs), dating between ~44,000 and ~18,000 yrbp, were found only in material from the Taimyr Peninsula and New Siberian Islands in northeastern Asia. EHs were not found in the Holocene muskoxen specimens available for this study, nor have they been found in other studies of extant muskox populations.

Conclusions: We provisionally interpret this evidence as showing that genetic variability was reduced in muskoxen after the Last Glacial Maximum but before the mid-Holocene, or roughly within the interval 18,000-4,000 yrbp. Narrowing this gap further will require the recovery of more fossils and additional genetic information from this interval.

For free access to the full paper, click HERE

Now, some of you may wonder what has Ovibos moschatus got to do with palaeoanthropology (as per Palanth’s definition). Well, briefly,:

it was a member of the Pleistocene megafauna that was exploited by the human populations as they slowly spread across northern Eurasia and into Beringia and is, as such, one of the many megafaunal survivors that didn’t fall for the “overkill” hypothesis;

it happens to have been very nicely portrayed by the Chauvet Cave’s artists (see attached); and,

it also happens to have been found in the Late Pleistocene Bluefish Cave III deposits!

Jacques

[lagarvelho]

Jacques and all:

Just FYI(and everyone else's as well), muskoxen were reintroduced to the mountains of Norway in the 1930's.  They were wiped out during WWII by the Germans who apparently just *had* to have something to shoot, but were reintroduced *again* after WWII.  They are doing reasonably well there, and seem to be expanding into Sweden.  I'm not sure where the "originals" came from --- probably Greenland, however.  Muskoxen were also reintroduced at some point, to the Taimyr Peninsula in northern Siberia, and seem to be doing all right there.  I think the Taimyr Peninsula muskoxen came from Alaska, where they were also reintroduced from Canada or Greenland.  And the Taimyr Peninsula muskoxen seem to like the Taimyr Peninsula, from all I've heard.  Oh, and wolvbes on Arctic islands like to eat them.  I don't know about elsewhere, however.
Anne G