A new study tries to explain why dogs are so friendly.(Photo: Kelsey Walling, AP)
Fido is friendly because his ancestors were domesticated twice, new research says.
Previously, scientists thought dogs were domesticated once. But, two is always better than one, right?
Researchers from the University of Oxford looked at a canine bone, thought to be 4,800 years old, excavated from the Neolithic Passage Tomb
in Newgrange, Ireland and DNA from 59 ancient dogs. The team found a
genetic difference between modern dog populations now living in East
Asia and Europe. Their research also shows the earliest dog population
in Europe was replaced. So, East Asian dogs and European dogs could have
been domesticated separately.
The origins of man's best friend are unknown but new evidence points to
the theory humans domesticated them twice. Keleigh Nealon
(@keleighnealon) has the story.
Buzz60
Dogs appear in both
the East and West more than 12,000 years ago, but in Central Asia no
earlier than 8,000 years ago, according to the archaeological record.
It's
so difficult to find the origin of dog genetics, senior author Greger
Larson, a biologist in the archaeology department at the University of
Oxford, once told The New York Times dog genetics have become a sort of “tomato soup” with hard to identify ingredients.
Lead
author Laurent Frantz, from the Palaeo-BARN, said in the study,
"reconstructing the past from modern DNA is a bit like looking into the
history books: you never know whether crucial parts have been erased.
Ancient DNA, on the other hand, is like a time machine, and allows us to
observe the past directly."
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