Impacts of biological globalization in the Mediterranean: Unveiling the deep history of human-mediated gamebird dispersal
Open accessAbstract
Significance: Human-mediated species dispersal stretching back at least 10,000 y has left an indelible stamp on present day biodiversity. A major contributing factor to this process was the trade in a wide range of exotic species that was fueled by elite demand. The black francolin—now extinct in the western Mediterranean but once a courtly gamebird prized for its flavor, curative, and aphrodisiac qualities by European aristocracy—was one of these species. Using historical sources and DNA analysis of modern and archival specimens, we show that this bird was not native to the western Mediterranean, and document its introduction to Cyprus and westward through the Mediterranean Basin via several trade routes that reached as far east as South Asia.
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The Akkadian name su-la-mu describes the bird as dark-colored, which could correspond instead to black francolins or gray junglefowl.
“The bird’s Akkadian name, su-la-mu, describes it as dark-colored (42), which could correspond instead to black francolins (Francolinus francolinus) (43). Dark plumage could also imply gray junglefowl, a species common in the Indian subcontinent generally and in the Indus region specifically (44) (SI Appendix, Fig. S1).”
From The biocultural origins and dispersal of domestic chickens (2022) · cites this paper as [43]
The Black Francolin in the Mediterranean section describes the species and its historical presence, but does not connect it to the Akkadian name su-la-mu or a dark-colored bird. Searches for the name, dark plumage, and gray junglefowl found no passage addressing that identification. The statements about the name and gray junglefowl carry separate citations in the citing sentence. (LLM, conf=0.76)
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Self-citation
- Authors
- Forcina, G., Guerrini, M., van Grouw, H., Gupta, B. K., Panayides, P., Hadjigerou, P., Al-Sheikhly, O. F., Awan, M. N., Khan, A. A., Zeder, M. A., & Barbanera, F.
- Affiliations
- University of Pisa (IT)
- Bird Group, Department of Life Sciences, The Natural History Museum, Herts HP23 6AP, United Kingdom;
- Ministry of Environment, Forests and Climate Change (IN)
- Ministry of the Interior (CY)
- University of Baghdad (IQ)
- Himalayan Nature Conservation Foundation, Conservation Department, Muzaffarabad 13100, Azad Kashmir, Pakistan;
- Bahauddin Zakariya University (PK)
- Smithsonian Institution (US)
- ORCID
- Venue
- Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences
- Publisher
- National Academy of Sciences
- Published
- 2015-03-02
- Volume
- 112
- Issue
- 11
- Pages
- 3296-3301
- ISSN
- 0027-8424 (ISSN-L)
- 1091-6490
- PMC
- PMC4371972
- OpenAlex
- W1986224530
- Cited by
- 24
- References
- 41
- Citations by year
- 2025: 3 · 2024: 2 · 2023: 1 · 2022: 3 · 2021: 3 · 2020: 2 · 2019: 5 · 2018: 2 · 2017: 1 · 2016: 2
- FWCI
- 1.14
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- bronze
- doi.org
- Locations
- Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (publishedVersion)
- Europe PMC (PubMed Central) (publishedVersion)
- PubMed Central (publishedVersion)
- PubMed (publishedVersion)
- CINECA IRIS Institutial research information system (University of Pisa) (submittedVersion, other-oa)
- Funders
- Yale University
- University of Glasgow
- Università degli Studi di Firenze
- Università degli Studi di Palermo
- Università di Pisa
- Topics
- Life Sciences › Biochemistry, Genetics and Molecular Biology › Genetics › Genetic diversity and population structure
- Physical Sciences › Environmental Science › Ecology › Animal Ecology and Behavior Studies
- Physical Sciences › Environmental Science › Ecology › Avian ecology and behavior
- Keywords
- black francolin, Francolinus francolinus, game birds, biotic homogenization, naturalization (biology), introduced species, Western Mediterranean, historical specimens, DNA analysis, species introduction history
- MeSH terms
- Animals, Bayes Theorem, Birds, Geography, Haplotypes, Humans, Human Activities, Molecular Sequence Data, Phylogeny, Mediterranean Region, Animal Migration, Internationality, History, 20th Century, History, Medieval
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