Nature & Environment
Stone Age Humans Brought Deer To Scotland By Sea
Ellainie Calangian
First Posted: Apr 08, 2016 04:56 AM EDT
Researchers discovered that Stone Age humans crowded the Scottish islands with red deer shipped by boat. The team was surprised at the seafaring prowess of the prehistoric ancestors.
David Stanton of Cardiff University, the co-author of the study said that the results of their study showed that Neolithic humans were shipping deer by sea about 4,000 to 5,000 years ago, according to a report of News Discovery. The study printed in the Royal Society journal Proceedings of the Royal Society stated that the DNA analysis showed that deer in the northernmost islands of Scotland were unlikely to have come from Norway, Ireland and mainland Scotland.
Stone Age humans used to transport pigs, sheep and cattle by boat, but not big wild animals such as deer, and not by such extensive distances. "Perhaps humans managed deer, having long-term relationships with herds that allowed them to plan, capture and transport deer on longer voyages," said Stanton.
The researchers said that the Scottish islands were masked in ice during the latter "glacial maximum," this is the period of deep Earth freeze. The place has been divided from each other by widths of the ocean that was too wide for the red deer to swim. Therefore, it was figured out that the deer was transported nearby through boat-hopping from one island to another island.
Meanwhile, the researcher also found out that the DNA analysis of the Neolithic deer bones that were found on northern islands was genetically not the same to deer from Scandinavia, Ireland and Britain. Stanton said that the hunt is just started to look for the ancestors of the deer.
The red deer comprise of large species that inhabit the Asia Minor, most of the Europe, the Caucasus Mountain regions, central Asia, parts of western Asia and Iran. Red deer is not extinct and its population is increasing due to conservation efforts and reintroduction. However, the population of red deer declines in North Africa.
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First Posted: Apr 08, 2016 04:56 AM EDT
Researchers discovered that Stone Age humans crowded the Scottish islands with red deer shipped by boat. The team was surprised at the seafaring prowess of the prehistoric ancestors.
David Stanton of Cardiff University, the co-author of the study said that the results of their study showed that Neolithic humans were shipping deer by sea about 4,000 to 5,000 years ago, according to a report of News Discovery. The study printed in the Royal Society journal Proceedings of the Royal Society stated that the DNA analysis showed that deer in the northernmost islands of Scotland were unlikely to have come from Norway, Ireland and mainland Scotland.
Stone Age humans used to transport pigs, sheep and cattle by boat, but not big wild animals such as deer, and not by such extensive distances. "Perhaps humans managed deer, having long-term relationships with herds that allowed them to plan, capture and transport deer on longer voyages," said Stanton.
The researchers said that the Scottish islands were masked in ice during the latter "glacial maximum," this is the period of deep Earth freeze. The place has been divided from each other by widths of the ocean that was too wide for the red deer to swim. Therefore, it was figured out that the deer was transported nearby through boat-hopping from one island to another island.
Meanwhile, the researcher also found out that the DNA analysis of the Neolithic deer bones that were found on northern islands was genetically not the same to deer from Scandinavia, Ireland and Britain. Stanton said that the hunt is just started to look for the ancestors of the deer.
The red deer comprise of large species that inhabit the Asia Minor, most of the Europe, the Caucasus Mountain regions, central Asia, parts of western Asia and Iran. Red deer is not extinct and its population is increasing due to conservation efforts and reintroduction. However, the population of red deer declines in North Africa.
See Now: NASA's Juno Spacecraft's Rendezvous With Jupiter's Mammoth Cyclone