The Baltic grey seal: A 9000-year history of presence and absence
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The Baltic grey seal : A 9000-year history of presence and absence. / Ahlgren, Hans; Bro-Jørgensen, Maiken Hemme; Glykou, Aikaterini; Schmölcke, Ulrich; Angerbjörn, Anders; Olsen, Morten Tange; Lidén, Kerstin.
In: Holocene, Vol. 32, No. 6, 2022, p. 569-577.Research output: Contribution to journal › Journal article › Research › peer-review
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TY - JOUR
T1 - The Baltic grey seal
T2 - A 9000-year history of presence and absence
AU - Ahlgren, Hans
AU - Bro-Jørgensen, Maiken Hemme
AU - Glykou, Aikaterini
AU - Schmölcke, Ulrich
AU - Angerbjörn, Anders
AU - Olsen, Morten Tange
AU - Lidén, Kerstin
N1 - Publisher Copyright: © The Author(s) 2022.
PY - 2022
Y1 - 2022
N2 - The grey seal (Halichoerus grypus) has been part of the Baltic Sea fauna for more than 9000 years and has ever since been subjected to extensive human hunting, particularly during the early phases of its presence in the Baltic Sea, but also in the early 20th century. In order to study their temporal genetic structure and to investigate whether there has been a genetically continuous grey seal population in the Baltic, we generated mitochondrial control region data from skeletal remains from ancient grey seals from the archaeological sites Stora Förvar (Sweden) and Neustadt (Germany) and compared these with modern grey seal data. We found that the majority of the Mesolithic grey seals represent haplotypes that is not found in contemporary grey seals, indicating that the Baltic Sea population went extinct, likely due to human overexploitation and environmental change. We hypothesize that grey seals recolonised the Baltic Sea from the North Sea. during the Bronze Age or Iron Age, and that the contemporary Baltic grey seal population is direct descendants of this recolonisation. Our study highlights the power of biomolecular archaeology to understand the factors that shape contemporary marine diversity.
AB - The grey seal (Halichoerus grypus) has been part of the Baltic Sea fauna for more than 9000 years and has ever since been subjected to extensive human hunting, particularly during the early phases of its presence in the Baltic Sea, but also in the early 20th century. In order to study their temporal genetic structure and to investigate whether there has been a genetically continuous grey seal population in the Baltic, we generated mitochondrial control region data from skeletal remains from ancient grey seals from the archaeological sites Stora Förvar (Sweden) and Neustadt (Germany) and compared these with modern grey seal data. We found that the majority of the Mesolithic grey seals represent haplotypes that is not found in contemporary grey seals, indicating that the Baltic Sea population went extinct, likely due to human overexploitation and environmental change. We hypothesize that grey seals recolonised the Baltic Sea from the North Sea. during the Bronze Age or Iron Age, and that the contemporary Baltic grey seal population is direct descendants of this recolonisation. Our study highlights the power of biomolecular archaeology to understand the factors that shape contemporary marine diversity.
KW - aDNA
KW - Baltic Sea
KW - extirpation
KW - Grey Seal
KW - hunting
KW - mitogenomes
U2 - 10.1177/09596836221080764
DO - 10.1177/09596836221080764
M3 - Journal article
AN - SCOPUS:85126047611
VL - 32
SP - 569
EP - 577
JO - Holocene
JF - Holocene
SN - 0959-6836
IS - 6
ER -
ID: 307527680