Data from: Ancient DNA microsatellite analyses of the extinct New Zealand giant moa (Dinornis robustus) identify relatives within a single fossil site

By analysing ancient DNA (aDNA) from 74 14C-dated individuals of the extinct South Island giant moa (Dinornis robustus) of New Zealand, we identified four dyads of closely related adult females. Although our total sample included bones from four fossil deposits located within a 10 km radius, these eight individuals had all been excavated from the same locality. Indications of kinship were based on high pairwise genetic relatedness (rXY) in six microsatellite markers genotyped from aDNA, coupled with overlapping radiocarbon ages. The observed rXY values in the four dyads exceeded a conservative cutoff value for potential relatives obtained from simulated data. In three of the four dyads, the kinship was further supported by observing shared and rare mitochondrial haplotypes. Simulations demonstrated that the proportion of observed dyads above the cutoff value was at least 20 times higher than expected in a randomly mating population with temporal sampling, also when introducing population structure in the simulations. We conclude that the results must reflect social structure in the moa population and we discuss the implications for future aDNA research.通过对新西兰已灭绝的南岛巨恐鸟（Dinornis robustus）的74例经碳十四（14C）定年个体的古DNA（aDNA）进行分析，我们鉴定出四组成年雌性近亲成对个体。尽管我们的总样本涵盖了10公里半径范围内四处化石遗址的骨骼，但这8个个体均出土于同一地点。亲缘关系的判定依据为：从aDNA中完成基因分型的6个微卫星标记呈现出较高的成对遗传相关性（rXY），且各成对个体的碳十四测年结果相互重叠。该四组成对个体的rXY观测值均高于从模拟数据中得到的潜在亲缘关系保守截断值。在其中三组成对个体中，共享稀有线粒体单倍型的结果进一步佐证了其亲缘关系。模拟实验显示，即使在模拟中引入种群结构，在带时序采样的随机交配种群中，观测到的截断值以上的成对个体比例仍至少比预期高出20倍。我们据此认为，该结果必然反映了恐鸟种群的社会结构，并探讨了其对未来古DNA研究的启示。