Forensic Science International
Volume 245, December 2014, Pages 51–57

An old dog and new tricks: Genetic analysis of a Tudor dog recovered from the Mary Rose wreck


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Highlights

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The Mary Rose was raised in 1982 and found with the ship was the remains of a dog.
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We have analysed the DNA of the dog and show that it was a young male.
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The dog is most closely related to modern Jack Russell Terriers with a brown coat.
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The MRD was carrier for the canine genetic disorder hyperuricosria.

Abstract

The Tudor warship the Mary Rose sank in the Solent waters between Portsmouth and the Isle of Wight on the 19th of July 1545, whilst engaging a French invasion fleet. The ship was rediscovered in 1971 and between 1979 and 1982 the entire contents of the ship were excavated resulting in the recovery of over 25,000 objects, including the skeleton of a small to medium sized dog referred to as the Mary Rose Dog (MRD). Here we report the extraction and analysis of both mitochondrial and genomic DNA from a tooth of this animal. Our results show that the MRD was a young male of a terrier type most closely related to modern Jack Russell Terriers with a light to dark brown coat colour. Interestingly, given the antiquity of the sample, the dog was heterozygotic for the SLC2A9 gene variant that leads to hyperuricosuria when found in modern homozygotic animals. These findings help shed light on a notable historical artefact from an important period in the development of modern dog breeds.

Keywords

  • Ancient DNA; 
  • Mary Rose; 
  • Terrier breed; 
  • Canine coat colour; 
  • SLC2A9

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