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Where did dogs first arrive on the scene? Scientists have long debated that question, and now a study of doggie DNA from around the world is pointing to Central Asia.
Man's best friend may have evolved somewhere near what is now Nepal and Mongolia, researchers say.
Previous studies have suggested southern China, the Middle East, Siberia and Europe as the place where our first domesticated animal arose from wolves at least 15,000 years ago.
For the new work, Adam Boyko of Cornell University and others analyzed DNA from 549 dogs that represented 38 countries in Africa, the Americas, Asia, Europe, India, the Middle East and islands north and east of Australia. The animals weren't house pets, but rather "village dogs" that wandered freely in the streets or fields.
The researchers examined the DNA for signals of where the dogs had the most ancient roots. That pointed to Central Asia. The analysis did not tackle the contentious question of when dogs appeared.
Genetic structure in village dogs reveals a Central Asian domestication origin [abstract]
(Score: 2) by PartTimeZombie on Wednesday October 21 2015, @11:50PM
There seems to be a lot of debate about this, and according to TFA this study hasn't ended that.
With the discovery of 80,000 year old Homo Sapien teeth in China recently, it maybe that the domestication of the dog gets pushed back too, they seem to have been very important to an awful lot of different cultures.
The Maori [wikipedia.org] even bought dogs [wikipedia.org] to New Zealand in their migrations, one of only two mammal species they bought.
(Score: 2) by captain normal on Thursday October 22 2015, @03:40AM
There is also some question of whether dogs evolved from wolves or did they both evolve from some common ancestor. At any rate, there is some indication that canine/human interaction was much earlier: http://www.animalpeoplenews.org/anp/2012/02/29/the-evolution-and-natural-history-of-dogs/ [animalpeoplenews.org]
Everyone is entitled to his own opinion, but not to his own facts"- --Daniel Patrick Moynihan--