Paleolithic cave rock art, animal coloration, and specific animal habitats

Pruvost et al. (1) found a genetic relationship between Upper Paleolithic horse coat color phenotypes, as evident from Paleolithic cave rock art paintings in the Franco-Cantabrian region, and molecular data in fossil horse DNA. They have genotyped coat-color loci in predomestic ancient horses from Siberia, Eastern and Western Europe, and the Iberian Peninsula. Six horses from Western and Eastern Europe, but not from Siberia, shared an allele associated with dappled coat color. Eighteen were genotyped to be bay (reddish-brown), and seven were black. We propose that these genotyped colors, along with other animal colors documented in Paleolithic rock art, are related to specific …