Family Tree of Dogs and Wolves Is Found to Split Earlier Than Thought

New York Times ^ | MAY 21, 2015 | JAMES GORMAN

[nickcarraway]

The ancestors of modern wolves and dogs split into different evolutionary lineages 27,000 to 40,000 years ago, much earlier than some other research has suggested, scientists reported Thursday.

The new finding is based on a bone fragment found on the Taimyr Peninsula in Siberia several years ago. When scientists studied the bone and reconstructed its genome — the first time that had been done for an ancient wolf, or any kind of ancient carnivore — they found it was a new species that lived 35,000 years ago.

Based on the differences between the genome of the new species, called the Taimyr wolf, and the genomes of modern wolves and dogs, the researchers built a family tree that shows wolves and dogs splitting much earlier than the 11,000 to 16,000 years ago that a study in 2014 concluded.

Their study also gives some dog-park bragging rights to owners of Siberian huskies and Greenland sled dogs, which have inherited a portion of their genes from the Taimyr wolf.

The history of dogs is still murky, however, because it seems that different kinds of wolves and dogs have interbred at different times in different places over the past tens of thousands of years.

[nickcarraway]

Ping

[Fungi]

The inferred tracks of ancestral Ne in dogs show a population decline of at least 16-fold over the past 50 thousand years,.. However, interpretation of these phylogenetic signals is challenging due to the possibilityof post-divergence gene flow between dogs and wolves, One important factor that could complicate inference of divergence between dogs and wolves…This method tallies site patterns for four taxa, compares them to those expected under an assumed phylogeny…We next inferred a complete demographic model for dogs and wolves…Our divergence time estimates imply that dogs and wolves diverged 14.9 thousand years ago…Interestingly, we inferred a divergence time of 398 kya (382–415 kya) between the golden jackal and the population ancestral to dogs and wolves…G-PhoCS produced estimates of ancestral effective population sizes compatible with the ones inferred by PSMC…Our inference of a pre-agriculture origin of dogs…Interpretation of the phylogenetic signals in these genomes was particularly challenging due to high levels of incomplete lineage…Our inferences of ancestral population size…The divergence time between dogs and wolves provides an estimated upper bound... Get the point? There is nothing proved here, everything is an assumption, has not been proved and yet is presented as fact.

[TigersEye]

...and yet is presented as fact.

They should have use words like 'inferred' and 'interpretation' and 'assumed' so that people wouldn't come to that conclusion.

[Paladin2]

Sounds like this is proof of Global Warming.

[FredZarguna]

I'm going to infer that it's safe to assume the word "droll" applies to your interpretation.

[SunkenCiv]

Dogs have been man's best friend 'for 40,000 years'

[TigersEye]

You caught me, I was just drolling. I’m an internet droll.

[9thLife]

I guess they must have used AncestryDogCom.

[Joe 6-pack]

WOOOF!

The Doggie Ping list is for FReepers who would like to be notified of threads relating to all things canid. If you would like to join the Doggie Ping Pack (or be unleashed from it), FReemail me.

[DaveA37]

This must be a slow news day..................

[SunkenCiv]

Thanks nickcarraway.

[Stormdog]

“I guess they must have used AncestryDogCom.”

Instead of a leaf they use a bone.

[pallis]

All I know is that my blue-eyed wolf dog is a big nut.

[SunkenCiv]

Bow-woooooo, werewolves of the Pleistocene...