Tropical Indian bison and Sumatran rhinos were found to prehistorically inhabit the northeastern Tibetan Plateau

Kunming, 20 Oct (China News Service) -- A reporter learned from the Kunming Institute of Zoology of the Chinese Academy of Sciences on the 20th that the ancient DNA room of the Institute's Subing Research Group cooperated with the environmental archaeology team of Lanzhou University and the College of Animal Science and Technology of Northwest A&F University to conduct ancient DNA research on 10 large bovine animals and 2 rhino skeleton specimens at the Shannashuzha site, and found that tropical Indian bison and Sumatran rhinos prehistoric inhabited the northeast of the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau, prompting the area to become one of the last hunting grounds in East Asia.

Located on the west bank of the Tao River in Chabu Town, Min County, Gansu Province, the site of Shannashuzha is located on the west bank of the Tao River, 5270-5035 years ago, and the cultural type belongs to the early stage culture of Majiayao. Wildlife remains at the site account for about 78% of all animal remains, and in addition to antelopes, bears, tigers, wild boars, hares, etc., tropical/subtropical animals such as sambar deer, golden snub-nosed monkeys and bamboo rats, as well as large bovine and rhinoceros that cannot be identified in species.

Researchers conducted ancient DNA studies on 10 large bovine animals and 2 rhinoceros bone specimens at the site, and obtained nuclear genome and mitochondrial genome DNA data. Comprehensive analysis unanimously shows that the remains of these 10 large bovines belong to Indian bison that inhabit only the tropical rainforests of South and Southeast Asia, while the two rhino remains belong to the endangered Sumatran rhinoceros, which is only distributed in the Indonesian islands of Sumatra and Borneo, which has only about 100 heads in the wild today.

In addition, the results of the study also show that these wild animals, which are now distributed in the tropics, spread to the northeast of the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau about 5,000 years ago, becoming an important hunting resource for the ancestors of the Majiayao culture.

Zhang Xiaoming, an associate researcher in the Paleomanic Laboratory of the Subing Research Group of the Kunming Institute of Zoology of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, said that this study is a milestone in the sequencing and analysis of the whole genome of large animals in the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau region, which has important academic value for understanding the geographical pattern of wild animals in the Middle and Late Holocene, climate change and the interaction between human activities, and will also promote more similar work.

The research results were published in the proceedings of the American Academy of Sciences, an internationally renowned comprehensive academic journal, on the 20th. (End)

Source: China News Network