New paper alert 🚨
A study led by #CPGSthlm researchers found DNA from a bear in 9.6k year old lake sediments. This potentially rewrites the history of brown bears in Scandinavia! 🧬🐻🐾🏔️🧊
Check @officialernst.bsky.social thread 👉
bsky.app/profile/offi...
OA article 👉 www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/...
Check out our study!
It's wonderful to live in an era where you can extract ancient genomes from lake sediments and obtain this kind of information! Amazing what can be revealed with sedaDNA.
A single wandering male bear has provided crucial insights into the history of brown bears in Scandinavia after the last ice age. This is shown by DNA analysis of clay from a lake. New study from @cpgsthlm.bsky.social & @zoologysthlm.bsky.social published in @pnas.org
www.su.se/english/news...
7/7 This was such a fun study from start to finish with everyone at @cpgsthlm.bsky.social. Shared first co-author and brown bear expert Isabelle Feinauer, @carlregnell.bsky.social, @jcchacond.bsky.social, @gog1693.bsky.social, @lovedalen.bsky.social, @palaeopete.bsky.social, @bdotter.bsky.social
6/7 We projected the genome onto a panel of modern and historical brown bear genomes in a PCA. With 145k SNPs, it has more affinity towards the southern population. This is also supported by F-statistics. More ancient genomes from especially northern Scandinavia would be needed to improve accuracy.
5/7 ... to be due to the bidirectional postglacial recolonisation. It also has a unique SNP, separating it from other clade 3a bears. How come this bear was in the "wrong" place? Male bears are known to migrate, and we think this bear came from the south and walked northwards.
4/7 Interestingly, the genome belongs to mitochondrial haplogroup 1a. Scandinavian brown bears are divided by a "contact zone", where haplogroup 1a populates the south of Scandinavia, and haplogroup 3a the north. This genome was found ~280 km north of the contact zone. This separation is thought...
3/7 The genome most likely originates from one individual, instead of being a mosaic, despite being an environmental genome. We investigated the allele frequencies for each position in the mitochondrial genome, and if there were multiple contributing haplogroups to reach this conclusion.
2/7 From less than 1 g of clay, we retrieved a 231x mitochondrial brown bear genome, and a whole-genome coverage of 0.05x. This allowed us to investigate the genome as we tried to get as much information as possible out of it. Based on the X-chromosome to autosomal ratio, we believe it is a male.
Very excited to share our study of an ancient environmental genome extracted from lake sediment! It originates from a brown bear that lived around 9,600 years ago close to the last ice-sheet remains in northern Sweden, and has an unexpected mitochondrial haplogroup. 1/7 www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/...
Submit your abstracts and come to Stockholm next summer!
The FIRST International Conference on Palaeogenomics will happen in Stockholm, Sweden, June 23-26, 2026!
Topics will encompass all corners of ancient DNA research, from humans to wildlife and sediments🧬🦣💀🦠
Save the dates ✅
Check the website icp2026.palaeogenomics.org and follow us for updates!
Really enjoyed the Association for Environmental Archaeology conference at Keble College in Oxford, presenting some fresh sedaDNA results!
Come join us!