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Leland Rogers

Publications and source records attributed to Leland Rogers.

2 recordsLinked to original sources
PubMed2026

Ancient Mongolian aurochs and cattle genomes reveal population shifts associated with the expansion of herding.

Humans hunted aurochs (Bos primigenius) for millennia in Mongolia prior to the introduction of domestic cattle sometime after ca. 5,000 years ago. Here, we present genomic data from Mongolian aurochs and domestic cattle at key points in Mongolia's prehistory to understand changes in population history associated with the adoption of domestic taurine cattle (B. taurus). We compare these low-coverage genomes with other cattle genomes worldwide and make comparisons about the nature of bovine populations before and after the adoption of domestic cattle. Individuals dating to before the introduction of taurine cattle have shared ancestry with North Asian aurochs, and individuals dating after the introduction of taurine cattle are related to other ancient East Asian cattle from archaeological sites such as Shimao in the Ordos region. We identify unique connections between ancient Mongolian aurochs and cattle and modern cattle breeds from Central China and Tibet.

Bos primigenius↗
PubMed2026

Three thousand five hundred years of sheeppox virus evolution inferred from archaeological and codicological genomes.

Sheeppox virus (SPPV) is a major livestock pathogen causing economic hardship through reduced production and death of vulnerable sheep, with written descriptions of sheeppox-like disease recorded since antiquity. We report 21 novel ancient SPPV genomes spanning the Eurasian steppe Bronze Age (∼1700 BCE) to the Early Modern period in Western Europe, including multiple genomes obtained from medieval parchment. We estimate that major capripoxvirus lineages diverged ∼11,500 to 3700 years ago, overlapping known translocations and bio-cultural developments in sheep. Our dataset supports SPPV diverging first within the lineage leading to goatpox virus and lumpy skin disease virus, and that known gene inactivation events within SPPV and goatpox virus occur in our earliest SPPV genomes. These findings reveal that the food security of Eurasian communities has been threatened by sheeppox for more than 3700 years and provide insights into the genomic evolution and potential host adaptation of SPPV.

Animals↗