Posted on 06/28/2020 7:27:36 AM PDT by SunkenCiv
'We have extracted DNA from a 9,500-year-old dog from the Siberian island of Zhokhov, which the dog is named after. Based on that DNA we have sequenced the oldest complete dog genome to date, and the results show an extremely early diversification of dogs into types of sledge dogs', says one of the two first authors of the study, PhD student Mikkel Sinding, the Globe Institute.
Until now, it has been the common belief that the 9,500-year-old Siberian dog, Zhokhov, was a kind of ancient dog - one of the earliest domesticated dogs and a version of the common origin of all dogs. But according to the new study, modern sledge dogs such as the Siberian Husky, the Alaskan Malamute and the Greenland sledge dog share the major part of their genome with Zhokhov.
'This means that modern sledge dogs and Zhokhov had the same common origin in Siberia more than 9,500 years ago. Until now, we have thought that sledge dogs were only 2-3,000 years old', says the other first author, Associate Professor Shyam Gopalakrishnan, Globe Institute.
...researchers have further sequenced genomes of a 33,000-year-old Siberian wolf and ten modern Greenlandic sledge dogs. They have compared these genomes to genomes of dogs and wolves from around the world.
'We can see that the modern sledge dogs have most of their genomes in common with Zhokhov. So, they are more closely related to this ancient dog than to other dogs and wolves. But not just that - we can see traces of crossbreeding with wolves such as the 33,000-year-old Siberian wolf - but not with modern wolves. It further emphasises that the origin of the modern sledge dog goes back much further than we had thought', says Mikkel Sinding.
(Excerpt) Read more at eurekalert.org ...
Thanks Varda.
That hartz.
It's an oldie.
I nu it!
Liking dogs is healthy and common and not far-fetched at all.
I think George Harrison mentioned him in some songs.
mmm, although my bark is worse than my bite
The researchers were processing the DNA, and as often happens, the weather outside turned nasty and they had no windows and hadn't noticed. The whole place experienced a power failure, leaving the scientists trapped in a black lab.
black labs matter
but let us resolve not to continue to paw over this.
I would get a fur coat for one of those robot quad peds from Boston Dynamics, licence the dog program for the suitable head accessories, woof, and away we go!
:^)
Did Percy Sledge own a dog? Was it a Sledge dog?
I've personally looked into this and natural crossbreeding with modern wolves is very rare (isn't seen in genetic samples). This is probably due to the innate propensity of wolves to kill any non-pack member. Dogs tied out where they can attract wild animals are probably being used as bait. That's what I saw in that famous photo of the polar bear playing with the dog. Who knows how many dogs were eaten before they got that photo.
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