Reconstructing Migration Trajectories using ancient DNA

Revealing the temporal and geographic pattern of human and animal dispersal and migration has been a major goal within anthropology, archaeology, and palaeontology. Here, I focus on the use of ancient DNA to delve beneath the migration palimpsests. More specifically, I firstly describe the use of ancient DNA derived from archaeological pig remains as a proxy to understand the initial dispersal of farmers into Europe, the back migration into Anatolia, and the spread of people into the Pacific. I then show how ancient DNA from foxes in the northern and southern hemisphere has been used to understand their dispersal onto islands in the absence of landbridges. These case studies highlight the value of DNA derived from long-dead organisms to detail the pattern and process of ancient dispersals.