The study of South American camelids and their domestication is a highly debated topic in zooarchaeology. Identifying domestic species (alpaca and llama) in archaeological sites based on morphometry is challenging because of similarity with respect to their wild ancestors. In this study, we generated mitogenomes for 61 ancient camelids dated between 3,500 - 2,400 years BP (Early Formative period) from two archaeological sites in Northern Chile (Tulán 54 and 85), as well as 66 modern camelid mitogenomes and 815 extant control region sequences from across South America. A comparative analysis was performed between genetics and osteometric data. We propose a model of domestication that includes an ancient guanaco population that no longer exists and a loss of ancient vicuña genetic variation since the Early Formative period. Finally, we find evidence that interbreeding practices were widespread during the domestication process by the early populations in the Atacama Desert predating the Spanish conquest.

中文翻译：

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古代DNA揭示了智利北部和安第斯山脉上南美骆驼的驯化史

南美骆驼科动物及其驯化的研究是动物考古学中一个备受争议的话题。由于形态特征与野生祖先相似，因此要根据形态学来鉴定考古遗址中的家养物种（羊驼和美洲驼）具有挑战性。在这项研究中，我们从智利北部的两个考古遗址（图兰54和85）为61个古骆驼（3,500-2,400 BP（早期形成期））产生了有丝分裂基因组，以及66个现代骆驼有丝分裂基因组和815现有的控制区域序列来自整个南美。在遗传学和骨测量数据之间进行了比较分析。我们提出了一种驯化模型，该模型包括一个早已不存在的古鬣蜥种群，以及自早期形成时期以来古骆马类遗传变异的丧失。最后，