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Domestication of horses fundamentally transformed long-range mobility and warfare1. However, modern domesticated breeds do not descend from the earliest domestic horse lineage associated with archaeological evidence of bridling, milking and corralling2-4 at Botai, Central Asia around 3500 BC3. Other longstanding candidate regions for horse domestication, such as Iberia5 and Anatolia6, have also recently been challenged. Thus, the genetic, geographic and temporal origins of modern domestic horses have remained unknown. Here we pinpoint the Western Eurasian steppes, especially the lower Volga-Don region, as the homeland of modern domestic horses. Furthermore, we map the population changes accompanying domestication from 273 ancient horse genomes. This reveals that modern domestic horses ultimately replaced almost all other local populations as they expanded rapidly across Eurasia from about 2000 BC, synchronously with equestrian material culture, including Sintashta spoke-wheeled chariots. We find that equestrianism involved strong selection for critical locomotor and behavioural adaptations at the GSDMC and ZFPM1 genes. Our results reject the commonly held association7 between horseback riding and the massive expansion of Yamnaya steppe pastoralists into Europe around 3000 BC8,9 driving the spread of Indo-European languages10. This contrasts with the scenario in Asia where Indo-Iranian languages, chariots and horses spread together, following the early second millennium BC Sintashta culture11,12.

Nuclear DNA sequences from Middle Pleistocene Sima de los Huesos hominins show they were more closely related to Neanderthals than to Denisovans, and indicate a population divergence between Neanderthals and Denisovans that predates 430,000 years ago. Neanderthal-like hominins in Middle Pleistocene Spain This genomic analysis of Middle Pleistocene hominins from Sima de los Huesos in the Sierra de Atapuerca in Spain shows that they were more closely related to Neanderthals than to Denisovans, and indicates a divergence between Neanderthals and Denisovans that predates 430,000 years ago. A previous report based on analyses of mitochondrial genomes from these specimens had suggested close relationship to Denisovans, which was in contrast to other archaeological evidence including morphological features shared with Late Pleistocene Neanderthals. A unique assemblage of 28 hominin individuals, found in Sima de los Huesos in the Sierra de Atapuerca in Spain, has recently been dated to approximately 430,000 years ago.sup.1. An interesting question is how these Middle Pleistocene hominins were related to those who lived in the Late Pleistocene epoch, in particular to Neanderthals in western Eurasia and to Denisovans, a sister group of Neanderthals so far known only from southern Siberia. While the Sima de los Huesos hominins share some derived morphological features with Neanderthals, the mitochondrial genome retrieved from one individual from Sima de los Huesos is more closely related to the mitochondrial DNA of Denisovans than to that of Neanderthals.sup.2. However, since the mitochondrial DNA does not reveal the full picture of relationships among populations, we have investigated DNA preservation in several individuals found at Sima de los Huesos. Here we recover nuclear DNA sequences from two specimens, which show that the Sima de los Huesos hominins were related to Neanderthals rather than to Denisovans, indicating that the population divergence between Neanderthals and Denisovans predates 430,000 years ago. A mitochondrial DNA recovered from one of the specimens shares the previously described relationship to Denisovan mitochondrial DNAs, suggesting, among other possibilities, that the mitochondrial DNA gene pool of Neanderthals turned over later in their history., Author(s): Matthias Meyer [sup.1] , Juan-Luis Arsuaga [sup.2] [sup.3] , Cesare de Filippo [sup.1] , Sarah Nagel [sup.1] , Ayinuer Aximu-Petri [sup.1] , Birgit Nickel [sup.1] , Ignacio Martínez [sup.2] [...]

Ancient DNA makes it possible to observe natural selection directly by analysing samples from populations before, during and after adaptation events. Here we report a genome-wide scan for selection using ancient DNA, capitalizing on the largest ancient DNA data set yet assembled: 230 West Eurasians who lived between 6500 and 300 bc, including 163 with newly reported data. The new samples include, to our knowledge, the first genome-wide ancient DNA from Anatolian Neolithic farmers, whose genetic material we obtained by extracting from petrous bones, and who we show were members of the population that was the source of Europe's first farmers. We also report a transect of the steppe region in Samara between 5600 and 300 bc, which allows us to identify admixture into the steppe from at least two external sources. We detect selection at loci associated with diet, pigmentation and immunity, and two independent episodes of selection on height., The arrival of farming in Europe around 8,500 years ago necessitated adaptation to new environments, pathogens, diets and social organizations. While indirect evidence of this adaptation can be detected in [...]

Excavations of a complex of caves in the Sierra de Atapuerca in northern Spain have unearthed hominin fossils that range in age from the early Pleistocene to the Holocene (1). One of these sites, the 'Sima de los Huesos' ('pit of bones'), has yielded the world's largest assemblage of Middle Pleistocene hominin fossils (2,3), consisting of at least 28 individuals (4) dated to over 300,000 years ago (5). The skeletal remains share a number of morphological features with fossils classified as Homo heidelbergensis and also display distinct Neanderthal-derived traits (6-8). Here we determine an almost complete mitochondrial genome sequence of a hominin from Sima de los Huesos and show that it is closely related to the lineage leading to mitochondrial genomes of Denisovans (9,10), an eastern Eurasian sister group to Neanderthals. Our results pave the way for DNA research on hominins from the Middle Pleistocene., The Sima de los Huesos site (see Fig. 1 for a map) is located at the foot of a 13 m vertical shaft, about 30 m below the surface and [...]

The earliest hominin occupation of Europe is one of the most debated topics in palaeoanthropology. However, the purportedly oldest of the Early Pleistocene sites in Eurasia lack precise age control [...]

A collection of human pelvic material was recovered from Sima de los Huesos (SH). An almost entire male pelvis is broad, with a long superior pubic ramus, a long femoral neck and marked iliac flare. The body mass is estimated 95 kg or more. Based on cranial capacities of three specimens, the encaphalization quotients are much smaller than in Neanderthals and modern humans.

The discovery of three fossil hominid skulls at Sierra de Atapuerca, Burgos, Spain, in Jul 1992 is reported. The hominid skulls were found in the Sima de los Huesos, a Middle Pleistocene cave site, and are estimated to be at least 300,000 years old. The cranial samples fit the archaic Homo sapiens group but are distinct from the Asian Homo erectus group. The Atapuerca fossil hominid collection is so far the most complete sample of Middle Pleistocene hominids discovered in one site and are a significant contribution to understanding the stages of human evolution before the Neanderthals.