Dog DNA reveals ancient trade network connecting the Arctic to the outside world

Science News ^ | October 8, 2021 | Freda Kreier

[SunkenCiv]

Ancient Arctic communities traded with the outside world as early as 7,000 years ago, DNA from the remains of Siberian dogs suggests.

Analysis of the DNA shows that Arctic pups thousands of years ago were interbreeding with other dogs from Europe and the Near East, even while they and their owners were living in one of the most remote places on Earth. Along with previous archeological finds, these results suggest that Siberians long ago were connected to a vast trade network that may have extended as far as the Mediterranean and the Caspian Sea, researchers report in the Sept. 28 Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences...

But previous archeological evidence — including the discovery of glass beads and other foreign goods entombed alongside 2,000-year-old dogs near the Yamal Peninsula in Russia — suggested that these communities were trading with other cultures beyond the Arctic...

Dogs rarely wander far from their humans, meaning researchers can “use dogs to understand human movement, like migrations and even trade interactions,” says Kelsey Witt, a geneticist at Brown University in Providence, R.I., who was not involved in the study. For instance, archeologists have used ancient dog DNA to push back the arrival date of people in the Americas (SN: 3/1/21).

[SunkenCiv]

• Dogs align themselves with Earth’s magnetic field when it comes time to poop [01/02/2014]
• BREAKING: Scientists say dogs align along earth’s north-south axis when pooping [01/4/2014]

[SunkenCiv]

The excavations of the mammoth skeleton on Kotelny Island this summer show it was deliberately butchered by Stone Age humans around 26,000 years ago.

Ancient cut marks on mammoth bones unearthed on a remote island in the frozen extremes of Siberia are the northernmost evidence of Paleolithic humans ever found, according to archaeologists.

The bones from the woolly mammoth skeleton, dated to about 26,000 years ago, were excavated this summer by a Russian expedition to Kotelny Island, in the far northeast of Siberia — 615 miles (990 kilometers) north of the Arctic Circle.

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The excavations of the mammoth skeleton on Kotelny Island this summer show it was deliberately butchered by Stone Age humans around 26,000 years ago. (Image credit: Courtesy of Innokenty Pavlov and Alexander Kandyba)

Russian expedition finds evidence of northernmost Stone Age hunters above the Arctic Circle | Tom Metcalfe | 11 days ago

[SunkenCiv]

[colorado tanker]

Why does it always seem to surprise researchers to find out that even in prehistoric times people moved around and engaged in trade?

[WMarshal]

Cool information. Here is a couple more:

Can Dogs See in Ultraviolet [yes they can] https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/canine-corner/201604/can-dogs-see-in-ultraviolet

Dogs are able to sense heat through infrared sensors in their nose: Study https://m.republicworld.com/technology-news/science/dogs-are-able-to-sense-heat-through-infrared-sensors-in-their-nose-study.html

[Alas Babylon!]

I read the article. No where does it say the researchers where surprised.

I hope people could be more honest here, as well as scientists everywhere.

Scientists should be allowed to discover new evidence and document it, even if it means an old theory is actually wrong. I love to hear new puzzle pieces in my own personal human origins quest. I took archaeology and anthropology in college during the early 1980s, and I can tell you a whole bunch of what was new and cutting edge then is now proved wrong.

I do understand, though. But we shouldn’t become too jaded because of all the liars like big government global warmers and government-approved Covid “experts” (meaning not those doctors who talk about so-called misinformation).

[colorado tanker]

Because the region is remote, scientists thought local dogs — and their owners — had been completely isolated from the rest of the world for much of that time

[SunkenCiv]

And they have a stroke when it's seagoing trade.

[SunkenCiv]

Thanks!

[DannyTN]

[LastDayz]

“Dog DNA reveals ancient trade network connecting the Arctic to the outside world”

So that’s where the Lost Tribe ended up.

[Red Badger]

That movie ‘Alpha’ was stupid......................

[Red Badger]

Because they have biases just like anyone else. They look a ancient humans as ignorant savages and living in caves scrounging for food and killing strangers on sight.

While there may have been some of that, humans of post glacial period were intelligent and creative, eventually developing agriculture and industry, producing more than they immediately needed, so the rest was for trade to obtain goods that were not available locally.

We find arrowheads here in NW Florida that are made of flint, but there’s no flint here for hundreds of miles. Seashell jewelry is found hundreds of miles from any ocean where there is flint......................

[colorado tanker]

Well said, RB.

[Nachoman]

Dogs rarely wander far from their humans

Apparently he never owned a beagle.

[Varda]

I liked it a lot. Bought it at Walmart.

[Red Badger]

My wife did too. But I doubt the ‘First Dog’ was like that movie......................

[Varda]

I can't say I believe the first dog was like that either
but there's was a lot of familiar behavior between the boy and dog/wolf that dog lovers recognize. It was a nice story and looks really nice on my 4K TV.

[Red Badger]

Yes, the CGI was really good, to the point that you almost didn’t notice it was CGI after a while.................

[SunkenCiv]

• Ancient wolves give clues to origins of dogs | Michael Price | June 29, 2022