First archaeogenetic results verify the mid‐Holocene occurrence of Dalmatian pelican Pelecanus crispus far out of present range

Abstract

The paper presents an evaluation of subfossil bird bones from archaeological and geological sites in Europe that shows that birds of the genus Pelecanus occurred far out of their present range between 7.4 and 5.0 ka BP in the Danish archipelago. Additionally, from other northwestern European regions mid‐Holocene records of pelicans are known. However, due to morphological similarities there are difficulties in species identification. In this paper ancient DNA barcoding techniques were used to clarify the species assignment of one of these records for the first time. Our results show that the bone derives from Dalmatian pelican Pelecanus crispus, a species that today breeds in 15 colonies in the eastern Mediterranean. This species identification is especially remarkable since the Dalmatian pelican is known to be less migratory. We demonstrate that the appearance and disappearance of pelicans in northwestern Europe coincide with climate parameters, since all records fall within warm periods. This applies for the larger group of Danish records during the Holocene thermal maximum in northern Europe as well as for two more groups of records from central Europe and Britain dating to 1.9 and 0.8 ka ago. Recent ecological research on the Dalmatian pelican shows that the species seems to profit from the modern climate changes and is starting to expand its range. Our paper documents that under special circumstances short‐distance migrant birds are also able to expand their ranges to areas far outside of the former distribution areas. Finally, the Dalmatian pelican is presented as an indicator species reflecting special climate conditions.The present study demonstrates not only the possibility to recover avian DNA from at least 7 ka old bones, but the relevance of such genetic analysis in combination with archaeological data, particularly if bones could not be assigned to species level by morphological features. In such cases, aDNA is shown as a valuable tool for the reconstruction of the avifauna of the past.