Biology subjects

Hulme-Beaman, A.

Publications and source records attributed to Hulme-Beaman, A..

3 recordsLinked to original sources

bioRxiv2026

Bioarchaeological evidence for commensal brown rats (Rattus norvegicus) in early Neolithic China

Due to its commensal relationship with humans, facilitating its dispersal from its natural range in East Asia, the brown rat (Rattus norvegicus) is now one of the most cosmopolitan and invasive mammals. Brown rats are also vectors of human pathogens and the most commonly used mammalian model (after mice) for biomedical research. Despite their major role in biodiversity loss and medicine, our understanding of a likely origin for their commensal relationship with humans in China still relies on modern population genetics, without a reliable timeframe of localisation. In this research, we have tried to fill this gap using direct information from the archaeological remains of rats collected by Chinese colleagues in several archaeological sites dated between 9000 and 3500 BP. Thanks to high-resolution morphometrics and direct 14C dating, we have identified the occurrence of the brown rat (Rattus norvegicus) within the domestic area deposits of the early Neolithic site of Jiahu by 7500 cal BP, suggesting a tentative link between rice agriculture and an early commensal behaviour of this species.

zoology↗

bioRxiv2021

Palaeogenomic analysis of black rat (Rattus rattus) reveals multiple European introductions associated with human economic history

The distribution of the black rat (Rattus rattus) has been heavily influenced by its association with humans. The dispersal history of this non-native commensal rodent across Europe, however, remains poorly understood, and different introductions may have occurred during the Roman and medieval periods. Here, in order to reconstruct the population history of European black rats, we generated a de novo genome assembly of the black rat, 67 ancient black rat mitogenomes and 36 ancient nuclear genomes from sites spanning the 1st-17th centuries CE in Europe and North Africa. Analyses of mitochondrial DNA confirm that black rats were introduced into the Mediterranean and Europe from Southwest Asia. Genomic analyses of the ancient rats reveal a population turnover in temperate Europe between the 6th and 10th centuries CE, coincident with an archaeologically attested decline in the black rat population. The near disappearance and re-emergence of black rats in Europe may have been the result of the breakdown of the Roman Empire, the First Plague Pandemic, and/or post-Roman climatic cooling.

evolutionary biology↗

bioRxiv2018

Synchronous diversification of Sulawesi’s iconic artiodactyls driven by recent geological events

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 Sulawesis 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 that much of the its faunal assemblage is much younger than the island itself. To do so, we combined palaeogeographical reconstructions with genetic and morphometric data sets derived from Sulawesis three largest mammals: the Babirusa, Anoa, and Sulawesi warty pig. Our results indicate that although these species most likely colonized the area that is now Sulawesi at different times (14 Myr ago to 2-3 Myr ago), they experienced an almost synchronous expansion from the central part of the island. Geological reconstructions indicate that this area was above sea level for most of the last 4 Myr, unlike most parts of the island. We conclude that recent emergence of land on Sulawesi (~1-2 Myr) may have allowed species to expand synchronously. Altogether, our results indicates that the establishment of the highly endemic faunal assemblage on Sulawesi was driven by geological events over the last few million years.

evolutionary biology↗