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Ancestral Coast Salish societies in the Pacific Northwest kept long-haired woolly dogs that were bred and cared for over millennia. However, the dog wool-weaving tradition declined during the 19th century, and the population was lost. In this study, we analyzed genomic and isotopic data from a preserved woolly dog pelt from Mutton, collected in 1859. Mutton is the only known example of an Indigenous North American dog with dominant precolonial ancestry postdating the onset of settler colonialism. We identified candidate genetic variants potentially linked with their distinct woolly phenotype. We integrated these data with interviews from Coast Salish Elders, Knowledge Keepers, and weavers about shared traditional knowledge and memories surrounding woolly dogs, their importance within Coast Salish societies, and how colonial policies led directly to their disappearance.

El Gigante rockshelter in western Honduras provides a deeply stratified archaeological record of human-environment interaction spanning the entirety of the Holocene. Botanical materials are remarkably well preserved and include important tree (e.g., ciruela (Spondias), avocado (Persea americana)) and field (maize (Zea mays), beans (Phaseolus), and squash (Cucurbita)) crops. Here we provide a major update to the chronology of tree and field crop use evident in the sequence. We report 375 radiocarbon dates, a majority of which are for short-lived botanical macrofossils (e.g., maize cobs, avocado seeds, or rinds). Radiocarbon dates were used in combination with stratigraphic details to establish a Bayesian chronology for ~9,800 identified botanical samples spanning the last 11,000 years. We estimate that at least 16 discrete intervals of use occurred during this time, separated by gaps of ~100-2,000 years. The longest hiatus in rockshelter occupation was between ~6,400 and 4,400 years ago and the deposition of botanical remains peaked at ~2,000 calendar years before present (cal BP). Tree fruits and squash appeared early in the occupational sequence (~11,000 cal BP) with most other field crops appearing later in time (e.g., maize at ~4,400 cal BP; beans at ~2,200 cal BP). The early focus on tree fruits and squash is consistent with early coevolutionary partnering with humans as seed dispersers in the wake of megafaunal extinction in Mesoamerica. Tree crops predominated through much of the Holocene, and there was an overall shift to field crops after 4,000 cal BP that was largely driven by increased reliance on maize farming.

Maize (Zea mays ssp. mays) domestication began in southwestern Mexico ∼9,000 calendar years before present (cal. BP) and humans dispersed this important grain to South America by at least 7,000 cal. BP as a partial domesticate. South America served as a secondary improvement center where the domestication syndrome became fixed and new lineages emerged in parallel with similar processes in Mesoamerica. Later, Indigenous cultivators carried a second major wave of maize southward from Mesoamerica, but it has been unclear until now whether the deeply divergent maize lineages underwent any subsequent gene flow between these regions. Here we report ancient maize genomes (2,300-1,900 cal. BP) from El Gigante rock shelter, Honduras, that are closely related to ancient and modern maize from South America. Our findings suggest that the second wave of maize brought into South America hybridized with long-established landraces from the first wave, and that some of the resulting newly admixed lineages were then reintroduced to Central America. Direct radiocarbon dates and cob morphological data from the rock shelter suggest that more productive maize varieties developed between 4,300 and 2,500 cal. BP. We hypothesize that the influx of maize from South America into Central America may have been an important source of genetic diversity as maize was becoming a staple grain in Central and Mesoamerica.

The first steps toward maize (Zea mays subspecies mays) domestication occurred in the Balsas region of Mexico by ∼9,000 calendar years B.P. (cal B.P.), but it remains unclear when maize was productive enough to be a staple grain in the Americas. Molecular and microbotanical data provide a partial picture of the timing and nature of morphological change, with genetic data indicating that alleles for some domestication traits were not yet fixed by 5,300 cal B.P. in the highlands of Mexico. Here, we report 88 radiocarbon dates on the botanical remains from El Gigante rockshelter (Honduras) to establish a Bayesian chronology over the past ∼11,000 y spanning the transition to maize-based food production. Botanical remains are remarkably well preserved and include over 10,000 maize macrofossils. We directly dated 37 maize cobs to establish the appearance and local change of maize at the site. Cobs are common in deposits dating between 4,340 and 4,020 cal B.P., and again between 2,350 and 980 cal B.P. The earliest cobs appear robustly domesticated, having 10-14 rows, suggesting strong selection for increased yield. The later cobs are comparable to these earliest ones, but show clear emergence of diverse traits, including increased cob width, rachis segment length, and cupule width. Our results indicate that domesticated landraces of maize productive enough to be a staple grain existed in Central America by 4,300 cal B.P.

Polar bears are an arctic, marine adapted species that is closely related to brown bears. Genome analyses have shown that polar bears are distinct and genetically homogeneous in comparison to brown bears. However, these analyses have also revealed a remarkable episode of polar bear gene flow into the population of brown bears that colonized the Admiralty, Baranof and Chichagof islands (ABC islands) of Alaska. Here, we present an analysis of data from a large panel of polar bear and brown bear genomes that includes brown bears from the ABC islands, the Alaskan mainland and Europe. Our results provide clear evidence that gene flow between the two species had a geographically wide impact, with polar bear DNA found within the genomes of brown bears living both on the ABC islands and in the Alaskan mainland. Intriguingly, while brown bear genomes contain up to 8.8% polar bear ancestry, polar bear genomes appear to be devoid of brown bear ancestry, suggesting the presence of a barrier to gene flow in that direction.

Polar bears are an arctic, marine adapted species that is closely related to brown bears. Genome analyses have shown that polar bears are distinct and genetically homogeneous in comparison to brown bears. However, these analyses have also revealed a remarkable episode of polar bear gene flow into the population of brown bears that colonized the Admiralty, Baranof and Chichagof islands (ABC islands) of Alaska. Here, we present an analysis of data from a large panel of polar bear and brown bear genomes that includes brown bears from the ABC islands, the Alaskan mainland and Europe. Our results provide clear evidence that gene flow between the two species had a geographically wide impact, with polar bear DNA found within the genomes of brown bears living both on the ABC islands and in the Alaskan mainland. Intriguingly, while brown bear genomes contain up to 8.8% polar bear ancestry, polar bear genomes appear to be devoid of brown bear ancestry, suggesting the presence of a barrier to gene flow in that direction.

Bottle gourd (Lagenaria siceraria) was one of the first domesticated plants, and the only one with a global distribution during pre-Columbian times. Although native to Africa, bottle gourd was in use by humans in east Asia, possibly as early as 11,000 y ago (BP) and in the Americas by 10,000 BP. Despite its utilitarian importance to diverse human populations, it remains unresolved how the bottle gourd came to be so widely distributed, and in particular how and when it arrived in the New World. A previous study using ancient DNA concluded that Paleoindians transported already domesticated gourds to the Americas from Asia when colonizing the New World [Erickson et al. (2005) Proc Natl Acad Sci USA 102(51):18315-18320]. However, this scenario requires the propagation of tropical-adapted bottle gourds across the Arctic. Here, we isolate 86,000 base pairs of plastid DNA from a geographically broad sample of archaeological and living bottle gourds. In contrast to the earlier results, we find that all pre-Columbian bottle gourds are most closely related to African gourds, not Asian gourds. Ocean-current drift modeling shows that wild African gourds could have simply floated across the Atlantic during the Late Pleistocene. Once they arrived in the New World, naturalized gourd populations likely became established in the Neotropics via dispersal by megafaunal mammals. These wild populations were domesticated in several distinct New World locales, most likely near established centers of food crop domestication.