Origin Of Man's Best Friend

Researchers compared genetic data with archaeological evidence and found that dogs were domesticated more than 12,000 years ago

15:21 07 June 2016

New evidence suggests that the first domestic dogs appeared on opposite sides of the Eurasian continent more than 12,000 years ago. Scientists claim that the eastern dogs migrated with humans and bred with those from the west, resulting in dog breeds that are a mixture of once separate descendants of wolves.

 

The origin of man’s best friend has been the subject of debate for many years with experts unable to agree as to where and when the wolves were first domesticated. Some believed that it was in China or Asia while others pointed to Europe. However, up until now, it was thought that the transformation of wolves into domestic dogs only happened once.

 

Professor Greger Larson, from Oxford University, said: "Animal domestication is a rare thing and a lot of evidence is required to overturn the assumption that it happened just once in any species.

 

"Our ancient DNA evidence, combined with the archaeological record of early dogs, suggests that we need to reconsider the number of times dogs were domesticated independently. Maybe the reason there hasn't yet been a consensus about where dogs were domesticated is because everyone has been a little bit right."

 

Colleague Professor Dan Bradley, from Trinity College Dublin, who led analysis of the Newgrange bone, said: "The Newgrange dog bone had the best preserved ancient DNA we have ever encountered, giving us prehistoric genome of rare high quality.