Ancient genomes heat up dog domestication debate

Nature ^ | 18 Jul, 2017 | Rachael Lallensack

[MtnClimber]

Results point to a single origin for modern canines and push back the timing by thousands of years.

Researchers chasing the origin of modern dogs find that canines were domesticated once, between 20,000 and 40,000 years ago.

The results, published on 18 July in Nature Communications1, push back against a controversial 2016 study2 that suggested dogs were domesticated twice. The latest analysis also add weight to previous research that moves the timing of domestication back as far as 40,000 years ago.

Everyone has their own idea about where and when dogs originated, says Krishna Veeramah, a palaeogeneticist at Stony Brook University in New York and an author on the latest study. “Archaeologists suggest one and geneticists suggest another — people are always getting very different answers.”

Zeroing in on a precise time and location for dog domestication has long been challenging because of seemingly contradictory or incomplete evidence. A 14,700-year-old jawbone is the oldest undisputed fossil from a domesticated dog (Canis lupus familiaris), but dog-like remains date back as far as 35,000 years ago. Genetic data show that the ancestors of all modern dogs split into two populations: one that gave rise to East Asian breeds and another that would become modern European, South Asian, Central Asian and African dogs. Yet researchers still can’t pin down when this split occurred. And they can’t agree on whether dogs were domesticated once or twice.

[A Formerly Proud Canadian]

Of course! A mere troll is to belittle her. Echidna is much more appropriate.

[A Formerly Proud Canadian]

Of course! A mere troll is to belittle her. Echidna is much more appropriate.

[afraidfortherepublic]

Well, I’m having trouble domesticating my Golden Retriever puppy and he’s almost a year old now. We’ve been kicked out of dog training, and he still dumps and bites at me. He behaves better for my husband, but he definitely wants to be boss dog.

[afraidfortherepublic]

That should have said JUMPS, but the alternative is accurate too!

[RegulatorCountry]

Well, he’s just going to take a dump, it’s the placement and timing that matters. Nipping is puppy behavior for some but I’d not typically associate it with Goldens. Keep working with him, he’ll settle down. I had a Chocolate Lab that took the better part of three years to get him calmed down and he was a wonderful dog, loved him dearly. Puppy from hell, though.

[RegulatorCountry]

Years ago I took to Olympics scoring for my dogs as far as good placement in the backyard, out in the wooded natural areas merited a 10, in the yard a 5, on a sidewalk 0. They live for praise and a 10, so they all got it eventually.

[nicollo]

From the LA Times article:

The scientists were surprised by the enormous diversity of the genetic sequences they found in dogs--far more than could have evolved in a mere 14,000 years, Wayne said.

Based on differing estimates of how quickly those mutations could accumulate, the researchers concluded that dogs could have originated as long as 135,000 years ago or as recently as 60,000 years ago.

Yet, as the above articles states, most modern breeds are less than 200 years old. Then there was the Russian scientist who domesticated foxes within just a few generations.

There's no logic to domesticated dogs prior to the last ice age, otherwise we'd see dogs coming out of Africa much earlier, and there was no environmental trigger for it, anyway. Too often these DNA analysis are more about getting published than real science.

[kanawa]

When did cats first domesticate humans?

[Flick Lives]

Then there was the Russian scientist who domesticated foxes within just a few generations.

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Saw a TV show on that awhile back. Interesting just how quickly you could breed a dometicayfox by simply selecting foxes that were more docile and receptive to humans. The domesticated foxes also began to look like dogs with floppy ears and mottled coats.