The importance of multidisciplinary research in historical ecology: the case of the black francolin (Francolinus francolinus)

Addressing the past patterns, dynamics and events is an ambitious but essential task to gain a thorough understanding of present-day biodiversity. Historical ecology is the emerging field of research which is rising to this challenge. Its markedly multidisciplinary nature is crucial in providing convincing answers to questions that would otherwise remain unsolved. We present here the paradigmatic case of the black francolin (Francolins francolinus), a prized gamebird presently ranging from Cyprus to India but historically also distributed along the European and African coasts of the Mediterranean. The combined use of museomics, archaeozoology, historical documentation - both textual and pictorial - allowed to ultimately assess the yet contentious nonnativeness of the black francolin to both Europe and Africa, while unveiling the extinct populations as originary from the Near East and the Indian subcontinent. If, on the one hand, the methodological advances of the last decades and archival DNA knowhow of molecular biologists were key, the information provided by historians about past diplomatic relationships, aesthetics and economics were equally important to confirm the trade of this gamebird along information long-distance trade routes. Remarkably, citizen science may play an important role in similar studies by helping to identify privately-owned and often neglected resources.