Elephants played a prominent role in human history since the the ancient times, which is documented by an abundance of ivory products nowadays housed in public and private collections worldwide. Elephant ivory is an integral part of human history because it was a global commodity creating some of the oldest trade routes. Yet, very little is known about elephants in the historical times, because DNA and samples do not get preserved well in the hot climate of the low latitudes. However, an unexpected solution to the problem might be to study the ivory that has made its way out of Africa, and in this proof-of-concept project, I study three samples of ivory found in a shipwreck in the Mediterranean Sea. The ship, likely sailing from North Africa, sank 2,500 years ago near the coast of Spain. Understanding where did the ivory come from can provide information about genetic variation, and perhaps whole populations, which have become extinct since those times. To put these ancient samples in context, I first generate a genomic catalogue of present-day elephant diversity by sequencing whole genomes from elephants from across their current range. Besides being a genetic map, upon which the ancient samples can be projected, this dataset is also an invaluable resource for further elephant research and conservation. Thus, the overall objective of this project was to study the genetic diversity of African elephants that remains in the present, and to put it into the perspective of the diversity that has already gone extinct by studying ivory from a shipwreck.
