PS 54-91
Ancient DNA indicates changes in genetic diversity and range in three whale species in NW Alaska

Thursday, August 14, 2014
Exhibit Hall, Sacramento Convention Center
Sarah Brown, Veterinary Genetics, University of California, Davis, Davis, CA
John Darwent, Department of Anthropology, University of California, Davis, Davis, CA
Jeremy Foin, Department of Anthropology, University of California, Davis, Davis, CA
Adam Freeburg, Department of Anthropology, University of Washington, Seattle, WA
Christyann Darwent, Department of Anthropology, University of California, Davis, Davis, CA
Background/Question/Methods

Ancient DNA can provide insight into species range and changes in genetic diversity, particularly those species that have been heavily impacted by anthropogenic causes. Whale species have suffered great losses in census size since the emergence of 17thcentury industrial whaling. Because of this decrease in population size and concomitant reduction in genetic diversity, modern whale species represent a fraction of the genetic diversity present in the past. In a pilot study, we utilized archaeological whale bone material from NW Alaska to assess the change through time. Whale bone samples were collected in 2010-11 across the beach ridges of Cape Krusenstern and Cape Espenberg, which bracket the north and south end of Kotzebue Sound, Alaska. At Cape Krusenstern one whale bone sample was collected from a locality dated to 2800 B.C., but the remaining 11 samples come from younger contexts (ca. A.D. 600-800) and (ca. A.D. 800-1700). At Cape Espenberg a total of 29 samples were collected from across the early-late Thule and historic Iñupiaq beach ridges, of which 16 were recovered from excavated contexts (A.D. 240 – 1050). Ancient DNA was extracted and amplified for a ~500 base pair fragment of the mitochondrial d-loop.

Results/Conclusions

Although we anticipated the majority of the specimens to be bowhead whale based on ethnographic accounts of Inuit whale hunting preferences, grey whale comprise 53% of the identified through aDNA. Bowhead (27%) and humpback (20%) comprise the other two identified species, the latter of which is not typically found north of the Seward Peninsula today. Mitochondrial DNA results indicate both common and novel haplotypes in both the gray and bowhead whale, and the presence of haplotypes previously only reported in Eastern stocks. The bowhead data show potential ancient long range migration by sharing haplotypes previously reported in modern whales from the Spitsbergen (Atlantic) and Hudson Bay-Fox Basin stock.

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