Such DNA. Paleogenetic. Wow. Very archaeological evidence. (credit: Doge)
Dogs were the first animal that humans domesticated. These furry pals were living with people for thousands of years before we invented agriculture and started keeping other animals like goats and pigs. Though we have archaeological evidence of dog bones within human communities dating back 15,000 years, scientists still aren't sure where humans began the process of converting wild wolves into snuggly companions. Now, a new study suggests that dogs were domesticated twice—once in Europe and once in Asia, probably around the same time.
A large group of researchers with expertise in everything from archaeology to paleogenetics have collaborated on a paper in Science explaining how they reached this conclusion. They began by sequencing DNA from ancient and modern dogs to measure genetic drift. The lynchpin of the study was a well-preserved bone from a dog that lived 4,800 years ago in Ireland, roughly around the time that Stonehenge was being constructed. By comparing this dog's DNA with that of over 600 modern dogs and snippets of DNA from other ancient dogs, the team could determine that this western dog belonged to a genetic group that diverged from Asian dogs between 14,000 and 6,400 years ago.
Evolutionary biologist Greger Larson told Science's David Grimm, "I was like, ‘Holy shit!’ We never saw this split before because we didn’t have enough samples."
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