Data from: Testosterone in ancient hair from an extinct species

Testosterone is a key regulator in vertebrate development, physiology, and behaviour. Whereas technology allows extraction of a wealth of genetic information from extant as well as extinct species, complimentary information on steroid hormone levels may add a social, sexual, and environmental context. Hair shafts have been previously used to sequence DNA from >50,000 14C years old Siberian woolly mammoths (Mammuthus primigenius). Hair-testing has also been used to measure endogenous steroids in multiple extant species. Here we use small quantities of woolly mammoth hair samples to measure testosterone, and a genomics-based approach to determine sex, in permafrost-preserved mammoths dated to circa 10-60 thousand 14C years. Our validated method opens up exciting opportunities to measure multiple steroids in keratinized tissues from extinct populations of mammals. This may be specifically applied to investigating life histories, including the extinct Quaternary megafauna populations whose remains are preserved in the permafrost throughout the northern hemisphere.

睾酮（Testosterone）是调控脊椎动物发育、生理机能与行为活动的关键因子。尽管当前技术已可从现生及灭绝物种中提取海量遗传信息，但类固醇激素水平的补充信息能够为研究增添社会、性别与环境维度的背景脉络。此前已有研究借助毛干（hair shafts）对距今超5万年碳14年代的西伯利亚猛犸象（Mammuthus primigenius）的DNA完成测序；毛发检测技术也已被用于测定多种现生物种的内源类固醇激素水平。本研究针对保存于永久冻土中、经碳14测定年代约为1万至6万年的猛犸象标本，利用少量猛犸毛发样本检测睾酮水平，并采用基于基因组学的方法判定其性别。本研究验证的方法为在灭绝哺乳动物种群的角质化组织中检测多种类固醇激素提供了极具前景的研究路径，可专门用于探究生物生活史，尤其是针对那些遗骸保存于北半球永久冻土中的灭绝第四纪巨型动物群种群。