Ross Barnett

Ross Barnett
University of Copenhagen · Centre for GeoGenetics

BSc(Hons), D.Phil(Oxon)

About

293
Publications
71,297
Reads
How we measure 'reads'
A 'read' is counted each time someone views a publication summary (such as the title, abstract, and list of authors), clicks on a figure, or views or downloads the full-text. Learn more
4,654
Citations
Additional affiliations
October 2014 - present
University of Ourhouse
Position
  • PostDoc Position
October 2012 - October 2014
University of Copenhagen
Position
  • Marie Curie Research Fellow
October 2002 - August 2006
University of Oxford
Position
  • D.Phil Student
Education
September 2002 - November 2006
University of Oxford
Field of study
  • Zoology
September 1998 - July 2002
University of Edinburgh
Field of study
  • Biochemistry

Publications

Publications (293)
Preprint
Full-text available
Small island populations, particularly those of large vertebrates, are vulnerable to extinction due to environmental stochasticity and genetic drift. Here, we combined analyses of 113 newly generated ∼10x genomes of anoa ( Bubalus spp.) and babirusa ( Babyrousa spp.) with habitat suitability models to assess the evolutionary trajectories of small a...
Article
Domestic cats were derived from the Near Eastern wildcat (Felis lybica), after which they dispersed with peolple into Europe. As they did so, it is possible that they interbred with the indigenous population of European wildcats (Felis silvestris). Gene flow between incoming domestic animals and closely related indigenous wild species has been prev...
Article
Full-text available
The Bering Land Bridge connecting North America and Eurasia was periodically exposed and inundated by oscillating sea levels during the Pleistocene glacial cycles. This land connection allowed the intermittent dispersal of animals, including humans, between Western Beringia (far north‐east Asia) and Eastern Beringia (north‐west North America), chan...
Article
Full-text available
Background: The evolutionary relationships of Felidae during their Early–Middle Miocene radiation is contentious. Although the early common ancestors have been subsumed under the grade-group Pseudaelurus, this group is thought to be paraphyletic, including the early ancestors of both modern cats and extinct sabretooths. Methods: Here, we sequenced...
Preprint
Full-text available
Background: The evolutionary relationships of Felidae during their Early–Middle Miocene radiation is contentious. Although the early common ancestors have been subsumed under the grade-group Pseudaelurus, this group is thought to be paraphyletic, including the early ancestors of both modern cats and extinct sabretooths. Methods: Here, we sequenced...
Article
Full-text available
Homotherium was a genus of large-bodied scimitar-toothed cats, morphologically distinct from any extant felid species, that went extinct at the end of the Pleistocene [1, 2, 3, 4]. They possessed large, saber-form serrated canine teeth, powerful forelimbs, a sloping back, and an enlarged optic bulb, all of which were key characteristics for predati...
Preprint
Full-text available
The Bering Land Bridge connecting North America and Eurasia was periodically exposed and inundated by oscillating sea levels during the Pleistocene glacial cycles. This land connection allowed the intermittent dispersal of animals, including humans, between Western Beringia (far north-east Asia) and Eastern Beringia (north-west North America), chan...
Article
Full-text available
The cave lion is an extinct felid that was widespread across the Holarctic throughout the Late Pleistocene. Its closest extant relative is the lion (Panthera leo), but the timing of the divergence between these two taxa, as well as their taxonomic ranking are contentious. In this study we analyse 31 mitochondrial genome sequences from cave lion ind...
Article
Full-text available
Numerous pairs of evolutionarily divergent mammalian species have been shown to produce hybrid offspring. In some cases, F1 hybrids are able to produce F2s through matings with F1s. In other instances, the hybrids are only able to produce offspring themselves through backcrosses with a parent species owing to unisexual sterility (Haldane's Rule). H...
Article
Full-text available
Lions are one of the world’s most iconic megafauna, yet little is known about their temporal and spatial demographic history and population differentiation. We analyzed a genomic dataset of 20 specimens: two ca. 30,000-y-old cave lions ( Panthera leo spelaea ), 12 historic lions ( Panthera leo leo/Panthera leo melanochaita ) that lived between the...
Article
Full-text available
Archaeological evidence indicates that pig domestication had begun by ∼10,500 y before the present (BP) in the Near East, and mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) suggests that pigs arrived in Europe alongside farmers ∼8,500 y BP. A few thousand years after the introduction of Near Eastern pigs into Europe, however, their characteristic mtDNA signature disapp...
Article
Full-text available
Archaeological evidence indicates that pig domestication had begun by ∼10,500 y before the present (BP) in the Near East, and mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) suggests that pigs arrived in Europe alongside farmers ∼8,500 y BP. A few thousand years after the introduction of Near Eastern pigs into Europe, however, their characteristic mtDNA signature disapp...
Article
Full-text available
Archaeological evidence indicates that pig domestication had begun by ∼10,500 y before the present (BP) in the Near East, and mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) suggests that pigs arrived in Europe alongside farmers ∼8,500 y BP. A few thousand years after the introduction of Near Eastern pigs into Europe, however, their characteristic mtDNA signature disapp...
Book
Full-text available
Britain's lynx are missing, and they have been for more than a thousand years. Why have they gone? And might they come back? A mere 15,000 years ago, Britain was a very different place – home to lions, lynx, bears, wolves, bison and many more megafauna. But as the climate changed and human populations expanded, changing habitats and wiping out wi...
Book
Full-text available
Formatted Full Bibliography for my book "The Missing Lynx"
Article
Full-text available
Human-induced environmental change and habitat fragmentation pose major threats to biodiversity and require active conservation efforts to mitigate their consequences. Genetic rescue through translocation and the introduction of variation into imperiled populations has been argued as a powerful means to preserve, or even increase, the genetic diver...
Data
Data S1. Statistics of Sequencing, mapDamage Analysis, and SNPs Calling of the Historical Samples, Related to Figure 1
Article
Toads are likely to have been introduced to Qatar, but little information is available on toad populations in the country, including the species present and their probable origin. Therefore, we collected tissue samples for analysis from 32 toads found in six different locations in northern and central Qatar. Phylogenetic analysis based on16S rRNA m...
Chapter
Full-text available
In the seminal 1984 paper by Higuchi et al. (1984) that first showed the post-mortem survival of ancient DNA and initiated the entire field of ancient DNA studies, the authors used small scraps of muscle tissue found while remounting a specimen of the extinct quagga. Using primitive bacterial cloning methods they showed that recognizably equine DNA...
Article
Full-text available
The study of ancient DNA is inextricably linked to zooarchaeology. From the first published paper on museum quagga (Equus quagga) material through to the first extinct genome of cave bear (Ursus spelaeus) and beyond, the ready availability of zooarchaeological specimens has been a boon to researchers. It is particularly important to note that, almo...
Article
Full-text available
Lions (Panthera leo) are of particular conservation concern due to evidence of recent, widespread population declines in what has hitherto been seen as a common species, robust to anthropogenic disturbance. Here we use non-invasive methods to recover complete mitochondrial genomes from single hair samples collected in the field in order to explore...
Article
Full-text available
The high degree of endemism on Sulawesi has previously been suggested to have vicariant origins, dating back to 40 Ma. Recent studies, however, suggest that much of Sulawesi's fauna assembled over the last 15 Myr. Here, we test the hypothesis that more recent uplift of previously submerged portions of land on Sulawesi promoted diversification and t...
Preprint
Full-text available
Ancient DNA evidence has confirmed hybridization between humans and Neanderthals and revealed a complex pattern of admixture between hominin lineages. Many segments of the modern human genome are devoid of Neanderthal ancestry, however, and this non-random distribution has raised questions regarding the frequency and success of hybridisation betwee...
Preprint
Full-text available
The high degree of endemism on Sulawesi has previously been suggested to have vicariant origins, dating back 40 Myr ago. Recent studies, however, suggest that much of Sulawesi’s fauna assembled over the last 15 Myr. Here, we test the hypothesis that recent uplift of previously submerged portions of land on Sulawesi promoted diversification, and tha...
Article
Full-text available
The genome of the extinct thylacine, also known as the Tasmanian tiger, has been sequenced from a 109-year-old museum specimen. The sequence resolves the phylogenetic placement of the species and reveals details of convergent evolution between the thylacine and eutherian canines.
Article
Saber-toothed cats (Machairodontinae) are among the most widely recognized representatives of the now largely extinct Pleistocene megafauna. However, many aspects of their ecology, evolution, and extinction remain uncertain. Although ancient-DNA studies have led to huge advances in our knowledge of these aspects of many other megafauna species (e.g...
Article
Ancient DNA provides an opportunity to infer the drivers of natural selection by linking allele frequency changes to temporal shifts in environment or cultural practices. However, analyses have often been hampered by uneven sampling and uncertainties in sample dating, as well as being confounded by demographic processes. Here, we present a Bayesian...
Article
Full-text available
Ancient DNA provides an opportunity to infer the drivers of natural selection by linking allele frequency changes to temporal shifts in environment or cultural practices. However, analyses have often been hampered by uneven sampling and uncertainties in sample dating, as well as being confounded by demographic processes. Here we present a Bayesian...
Article
Full-text available
Pigs (Sus scrofa) have played an important cultural role in Hawaii since Polynesians first introduced them in approximately AD 1200. Additional varieties of pigs were introduced following Captain Cook's arrival in Hawaii in 1778 and it has been suggested that the current pig population may descend primarily, or even exclusively, from European pigs....
Article
Full-text available
Article
Full-text available
The extinct cave lion (Panthera spelaea) was an apex predator of the Pleistocene, and one of the largest felid species ever to exist. We report the first mitochondrial genome sequences for this species, derived from two Beringian specimens, one of which has been radiocarbon dated to 29,860 ± 210 14C a BP. Phylogenetic analysis confirms the placemen...
Article
Full-text available
The causes of Late Pleistocene megafaunal extinctions (60,000 to 11,650 years ago, hereafter 60 to 11.65 ka) remain contentious, with major phases coinciding with both human arrival and climate change around the world. The Americas provide a unique opportunity to disentangle these factors as human colonization took place over a narrow time frame (~...
Article
Full-text available
Cellular organelles with genomes of their own (e.g. plastids and mitochondria) can pass genetic sequences to other organellar genomes within the cell in many species across the eukaryote phylogeny. The extent of the occurrence of these organellar-derived inserted sequences (odins) is still unknown, but if not accounted for in genomic and phylogenet...
Article
Full-text available
An innovative single-stranded DNA (ssDNA) library preparation method has sparked great interest among ancient DNA (aDNA) researchers, especially after reports of endogenous DNA content increases >20-fold in some samples. To investigate the behavior of this method, we generated ssDNA and conventional double-stranded DNA (dsDNA) libraries from 23 anc...
Article
Full-text available
Mitochondrial genomes represent a valuable source of data for evolutionary research, but studies of their short-term evolution have typically been limited to invertebrates, humans and laboratory organisms. Here we present a detailed study of 12 mitochondrial genomes that span a total of 385 transmissions in a well-documented 50-generation pedigree...
Article
Full-text available
Mitochondrial genomes represent a valuable source of data for evolutionary research, but studies of their short-term evolution have typically been limited to invertebrates, humans and laboratory organisms. Here we present a detailed study of 12 mitochondrial genomes that span a total of 385 trans- missions in a well-documented 50-generation pedigre...
Article
Full-text available
The known distribution of the Iberian lynx Lynx pardinus within the Iberian Peninsula since the Middle Pleistocene and the lack of reliable records of Eurasian lynx Lynx lynx in this region have led to the assumption that the Iberian lynx was the sole inhabitant of Iberia. In this study, we identified ancient mitochondrial DNA (a total of 337 base...
Article
Full-text available
With a range that covered most of northern Eurasia and parts of North America, the cave lion (Panthera spelaea) was one of the most widespread carnivores of the Late Pleistocene. Earlier ancient DNA analyses have shown that it is distinct from modern lions, and have suggested a demographic decline in Beringia during marine isotope stage 3 (MIS 3)....
Article
Full-text available
Based on 104 base pairs of the mitochondrial 12S ribosomal RNA gene, Sykes et al . [[1][1]] identified two Himalayan samples of hair, from Ladakh (India) and Bhutan, respectively, as belonging to the species Ursus maritimus (polar bear). The authors claim that these samples have the closest genetic
Article
Full-text available
The past decade has witnessed a revolution in ancient DNA (aDNA) research. Although the field's focus was previously limited to mitochondrial DNA and a few nuclear markers, whole genome sequences from the deep past can now be retrieved. This breakthrough is tightly connected to the massive sequence throughput of next generation sequencing platforms...
Article
Full-text available
Birds are the most species-rich class of tetrapod vertebrates and have wide relevance across many research fields. We explored bird macroevolution using full genomes from 48 avian species representing all major extant clades. The avian genome is principally characterized by its constrained size, which predominantly arose because of lineage-specific...
Article
Full-text available
The Tudor warship the Mary Rose sank in the Solent waters between Portsmouth and the Isle of Wight on the 19th of July 1545, whilst engaging a French invasion fleet. The ship was rediscovered in 1971 and between 1979 and 1982 the entire contents of the ship were excavated resulting in the recovery of over 25,000 objects, including the skeleton of a...
Article
Full-text available
Island evolution may be expected to involve fast initial morphological divergence followed by stasis. We tested this model using the dental phenotype of modern and ancient common voles (Microtus arvalis), introduced onto the Orkney archipelago (Scotland) from continental Europe some 5000 years ago. First, we investigated phenotypic divergence of Or...
Article
Full-text available
Despite their endangered status, the taxonomic relationship between the two geographically isolated South Asian river dolphin populations has never been comprehensively assessed and remains contentious. Here we present the first dedicated evaluation of the molecular phylogenetic relationship between the Indus (Platanista gangetica minor) and Ganges...
Article
Full-text available
Significance Recent studies have identified the genetic basis of numerous traits that differentiate modern domestic species from their wild counterparts. In both plants and animals, traits (and the genes underlying them) found ubiquitously in modern breeds are often presumed to have been selected early during the domestication process. Here, by det...
Article
Full-text available
Understanding the demographic history of a population is critical to conservation and to our broader understanding of evolutionary processes. For many tropical large mammals, however, this aim is confounded by the absence of fossil material and by the misleading signal obtained from genetic data of recently fragmented and isolated populations. This...
Data
##Assembly-Data-START## Sequencing Technology :: Sanger dideoxy sequencing ##Assembly-Data-END##
Data
##Assembly-Data-START## Sequencing Technology :: Sanger dideoxy sequencing ##Assembly-Data-END##
Data
##Assembly-Data-START## Sequencing Technology :: Sanger dideoxy sequencing ##Assembly-Data-END##
Data
##Assembly-Data-START## Sequencing Technology :: Sanger dideoxy sequencing ##Assembly-Data-END##
Data
##Assembly-Data-START## Sequencing Technology :: Sanger dideoxy sequencing ##Assembly-Data-END##
Data
##Assembly-Data-START## Sequencing Technology :: Sanger dideoxy sequencing ##Assembly-Data-END##