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 Where do you think the oldest dog originated?

10/21/2015

8 Comments

 
PictureFeral dog - en.wikipedia.org
 A team from Cornell University, New York, have spent the last seven years travelling the world and collecting blood samples from village dogs—free-ranging, feral, stray dogs that live near human settlements. These unleashed hounds represent the full genetic diversity of our canine companions.
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Who doesn't love dogs? They are some of humanities oldest companions. But little is known about stray village dogs.

The team collected blood samples from 549 village dogs in 38 countries across 6 continents. All they did was offer food and the dogs appeared.

After analyzing more than 185,000 genetic markers in these individuals, the team concluded that dogs were first domesticated in Central Asia, somewhere near India or Nepal.

But this isn't a final answer. It's just the latest volley in a long-running debate about when, where, and why wild wolves first transformed into man's best friend.

The oldest dog fossils are at least 15,000 years old and come from Western Europe and Siberia.

'In 2013 alone, a whole-genome study of living wolves and dogs argued that domestication took place around 10,000 years ago during the Agricultural Revolution, when wolves that scavenged at humanity's scrapheap became more accustomed to life with us. Four months later, another whole-genome study argued that wolves were domesticated in East Asia around 32,000 years ago. Six months after that, yet another study—this one of mitochondrial DNA in both modern and fossil dogs—put the site of domestication in Europe and the time somewhere between 18,000 and 32,000 years ago. That's well before the Agricultural Revolution, and suggests that wolves may have accompanied European hunter-gatherers as either hunting partners or scavengers.'

The Cornell University team have spent years collecting samples from over 1,500 ancient dogs and wolves, and is now finally ready to analyze them all. Source: The Atlantic.
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I like the idea of looking for clues among stray dogs. I'll await the final results with interest.

Did you guess the correct location?


8 Comments
Alana link
10/21/2015 03:14:32 am

I would have guessed Siberia. India would not have been one of my guesses. But this was fascinating. Cornell's campus is about an hour's drive from my home, by the way.

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Donna link
10/21/2015 07:04:44 am

It is so interesting to read information such as this - I would have guessed Europe
In North America, they say the Anasazi used geese as their dwelling guard 'dogs' - until actual domesticated dogs came into their lives :)

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Shantala link
10/21/2015 08:39:22 am

I would have never guessed this, but it was an interesting read. :)

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Nick #thisyearinmusic link
10/21/2015 10:32:07 am

I've never really given this much thought, but I would have gone for Africa, as that is where MAN originated. Central Asia also makes sense.

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K. Wayne link
10/21/2015 10:40:14 am

I bet most people will guess Europe.Africa makes the most sense. But I would not have guessed Asia. I love dogs. They save lives and enrich lives. They really are man's best friend.

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Shannon Seek link
10/21/2015 10:44:06 am

Asia is an easy guess for all sorts of reasons! I was just wondering about dogs the other day. Funny you'd be blogging about them! :-)

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Tweetsmom link
10/21/2015 11:52:21 am

Interesting stuff!

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K.Lee Banks link
10/22/2015 02:13:55 pm

I definitely love our canine (and feline) fur babies! It would be interesting to find out not only the exact origination of the first dogs, but also how so many different breeds of dogs came into existence.

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    Francene Stanley
    From England, I use news items in my novels which you can see below, all linked to an Amazon near you.

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