Palaeogenomes of a lost world: Ancient bovids of the submerged Palaeo-Agulhas Plain of southern Africa

We aim to investigate the changes in genetic diversity over the last ~57 thousand years (ka) of six bovid species (5 extant, 1 extinct) that roamed the now-submerged Palaeo-Agulhas Plain (PAP) off the southern coast of South Africa, through the analyses of ancient mitochondrial genomes (and nuclear genomes when/if possible). We will correlate any genetic changes with changes in climate and habitat availability. We propose to sample bovid remains (predominantly teeth, but also dense bone when teeth are not available), across three ancient time bins, from sites that bordered the PAP along the southern and western coast of South Africa in the Eastern and Western Cape provinces.