{
  "abstract": "Southwest and Central Asia were pivotal regions for the domestication and dispersal of domestic herbivores. Here we investigate long-term variation in bony labyrinth morphology of domestic bovids (sheep, goats and cattle) across the last 10 000 years. We focused on the osseous cavity of the inner ear, located within the petrous bone. We analysed semicircular canal (SC) size and shape using micro-computed tomography and geometric morphometrics (GMM) on 78 modern reference specimens and 234 archaeological petrous bones from 51 sites spanning the Iranian Plateau, Central Asia, the Caucasus and the Indus Valley. Bony labyrinth morphometrics yielded a strong taxonomic signal, enabling species-level identification of 228 out of 234 specimens and revealing greater diversity than anticipated. Comparative analyses further documented contrasting, nonlinear diachronic trajectories in SC size and shape among sheep, goats and cattle, reflecting species-specific responses to domestication and long-term herd management. Together, these results demonstrate that bony labyrinth GMM provides a robust, non-destructive framework for taxonomic identification and evolutionary inference and underscore how long-term, interdisciplinary approaches can capture the complex, nonlinear dynamics of animal domestication across the longue durée.",
  "abstract_shown": true,
  "affiliations": [
    "Université de Montpellier, Institut des sciences de l'évolution de Montpellier 1 , Montpellier, Occitanie, France",
    "Bioarchaeology Laboratory, Central Laboratory, University of Tehran 2 , Tehran, Iran",
    "National Museum of Iran 3 , Tehran, Iran",
    "UMR 7209—BioArch, Muséum National d'Histoire Naturelle 4 , Paris, Île-de-France, France",
    "Silk Road International University of Tourism and Cultural Heritage 5 , Samarkand, Uzbekistan",
    "Ruhr-Universität Bochum 6 , Bochum, Germany",
    "Institut des sciences de l'évolution de Montpellier 7 , Montpellier, Occitanie, France",
    "The Graduate University for Advanced Studies Research Center for Integrative Evolutionary Science 8 , Hayama, Kanagawa Prefecture, Japan",
    "University of Georgia 9 , Athens, GA, USA",
    "Mission Archéologique Française du Bassin de l'Indus 10 , Pakistan",
    "Pir Mehr Ali Shah Arid Agriculture University 11 , Punjab, Pakistan",
    "Centre for Isotope Research, University of Groningen 12 , Groningen, The Netherlands",
    "UMR 5133 - Archéorient, Environnements et sociétés de l'Orient ancien, Université Lyon 2 13 , Lyon Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes, France",
    "Institute for Iranian Studies, Austrian Academy of Sciences 14 , Vienna, Austria",
    "MCTH, Zanjan Archaeological Museum 15 , Zanjan, Iran",
    "Department of Archaeology and Archaeometry, Tabriz Islamic Art University 16 , Tabriz, Iran",
    "Department of Archaeology, Faculty of Literature and Human Sciences, University of Tehran 17 , Tehran, Iran",
    "Istituto di Scienze del Patrimonio Culturale, Consiglio Nazionale delle Ricerche 19 , Rome, Italy",
    "Berlin-Brandenburg Academy of Sciences and Humanities 20 , Berlin, Germany",
    "Archaeological Institute of Samarkand 21 , Samarkand, Uzbekistan",
    "National Center of Archaeology of the Academy of Sciences of the Republic of Uzbekistan 22 , Tashkent, Tashkent Province, Uzbekistan",
    "Département des Antiquités orientales, Musée du Louvre 23 , Paris, France",
    "UMR 7041—ArScAn, Archéologie de l'Asie Centrale, Archeologies et Sciences de l'Antiquite 24 , Nanterre, Île-de-France, France",
    "Tamaz Beradze Institute of Georgian Studies, The University of Georgia 25 , Tbilisi, Georgia",
    "Georgian National Museum 26 , Tbilisi, Georgia",
    "Università degli Studi di Napoli L'Orientale Dipartimento Asia Africa e Mediterraneo 27 , Naples, Campania, Italy",
    "Minpaku 28 , Suita, Osaka Prefecture, Japan",
    "Department of Archaeology, University of Kashan 29 , Kashan, Iran",
    "Department of Archaeology, University of Zabol 30 , Zabol, Iran",
    "UMR 8086—TEMPS, CNRS 31 , Paris, France",
    "West Asian Archaeology, University of Tsukuba 32 , Tsukuba, Japan",
    "Iranian Center for Archaeological Research, RICHT 18 , Tehran, Iran",
    "Ivane Javakhishvili State University 33 , Tbilisi, Georgia",
    "Aga Khan Cultural Service-Afghanistan 34 , Kabul, Afghanistan",
    "Faculty of Art and Architecture, University of Mazandaran 35 , Babolsar, Iran",
    "Ca' Foscari University 36 , Venice, Italy",
    "Samarkand State University named after Alisher Navoi 37 , Samarkand, Samarkand Province, Uzbekistan",
    "The University of Edinburgh School of History Classics and Archaeology 38 , Edinburgh, UK",
    "Department of Archaeology, Faculty of Conservation and Restoration, Isfahan University of Art 39 , Isfahan, Isfahan Province, Iran",
    "International Institute for Central Asian Studies 40 , Samarkand, Uzbekistan"
  ],
  "article_type": "research article",
  "arxiv": null,
  "author_total": 68,
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      "name": "Agathe Guignet",
      "orcid": "0009-0001-6140-2295"
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      "name": "Hossein Davoudi",
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      "name": "Amridin Berdimuradov"
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      "name": "Gennadiy Bogomolov"
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      "name": "Iulon Gagoshidze"
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      "name": "Teramura Hirofumi"
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      "name": "Haeedeh Laleh",
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      "name": "Zahra Lorzadeh",
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      "name": "Zurab Makharadze"
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      "name": "Catherine Marro",
      "orcid": "0000-0001-9503-9909"
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      "name": "Jamal Mirzaakhmedov"
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      "name": "Niloufar Moghimi",
      "orcid": "0000-0003-3121-9681"
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      "name": "Tomomi Murakami",
      "orcid": "0009-0004-4186-8882"
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      "name": "Sobir Raimkulov"
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  ],
  "bibtex": "https://research.draconitic.com/paper/3sjjgmh9ratyr.bib",
  "cited_by": 0,
  "doi": "10.1098/rsos.261493",
  "fulltext_url": "https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC13641910",
  "id": "3sjjgmh9ratyr",
  "issns": [
    "2054-5703"
  ],
  "landing_url": "https://royalsocietypublishing.org/rsos/article/13/10/261493/483563/Bony-labyrinth-taxonomic-identification-and-long",
  "language": "eng",
  "licence": "CC-BY-4.0",
  "licence_label": "CC BY 4.0",
  "licence_source": "article",
  "licence_url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/",
  "metadata_licence": null,
  "native_subjects": [
    [
      "openalex",
      "1911|Archaeology and ancient environmental studies"
    ]
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  "pdf_url": "https://royalsocietypublishing.org/rsos/article-pdf/doi/10.1098/rsos.261493/6169493/rsos.261493.pdf",
  "pmcid": "PMC13641910",
  "pmid": "42841164",
  "published": "2026-10-07",
  "publisher": "The Royal Society",
  "ris": "https://research.draconitic.com/paper/3sjjgmh9ratyr.ris",
  "sources": [
    {
      "first_seen": "2026-10-30T12:17:45Z",
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      "url": "https://royalsocietypublishing.org/rsos/article/13/10/261493/483563/Bony-labyrinth-taxonomic-identification-and-long"
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  "subjects": [
    {
      "field": "biology",
      "origin": "openalex:1911|Archaeology and ancient environmental studies",
      "subfield": "evolutionary-biology"
    }
  ],
  "title": "Bony labyrinth taxonomic identification and long-term evolution of livestock in the Southwest and Central Asia",
  "title_text": "Bony labyrinth taxonomic identification and long-term evolution of livestock in the Southwest and Central Asia",
  "type": "peer-reviewed",
  "updated_at": "2026-10-30T12:18:02Z",
  "url": "https://research.draconitic.com/paper/3sjjgmh9ratyr",
  "venue": "Royal Society Open Science",
  "versions": []
}