At least five types of dog existed by the end of the Ice Age, 11,000 years ago
This Article is about extracting DNA from dogs for scientific research.
For hundreds of years, dogs of all shapes and sizes – labradors and terriers, chihuahuas and spaniels – have held the position of man’s best friend.
Researchers studied DNA extracted from bones from ancient dogs for clues to evolutionary changes that occurred thousands of years ago, and found that just after the Ice Age, there were at least five types of dog with distinct genetic ancestries. They found that dog lineages have “mixed and combined,” and are still present in the dogs of today.
“Already by 11,000 years ago – before agriculture, and before any other animal had been domesticated – dogs had not only been domesticated, but they had already diversified genetically and likely spread across large parts of the world,” Anders Bergstrom, lead author and post-doctoral researcher in the Ancient Genomics Laboratory at London’s Francis Crick Institute,
Meanwhile, dog breeds from Mexico – such as chihuahuas and Mexican hairless dogs – are largely European in their lineage but retain some pre-Columbian DNA.
“All dog breeds from Europe share a common history that started with an ancient mixture, many thousands of years ago, between two very distinct dog lineages – one related to dogs in the Near East, and the other related to dogs in Siberia. This ancient mixing event between these two lineages gave rise to the European dog gene pool which later would give rise to all present-day European dog breeds,” Bergstrom said.
European dogs have lost their diversity – but no one knows why
And while modern European dogs appear to come in such different shapes and sizes, genetically, they share a recent common ancestor and are not as genetically diverse as they once were.
- One dog population spread through Europe, replacing others.
