A dog put to rest carefully about 7000 years ago, the bones now fossilized with a necklace of moose teeth.
Near Lake Baikal in southern Siberia, the bodies of the dogs were buried through the humans who enjoyed them.
The remains are part of an ongoing effort to cling to the ancient bonds between man and beast, and deepen the genetics of the fashionable domestic dog.
“Everyone should know the answer to this question,” said Robert Losey, an anthropologist at the University of Alberta, who is part of an ongoing effort to map the genome of prehistoric dogs.
“We want those steps before we can give a moderate response, a moderate explanation of the origin of the dogs. “
Having already completed one of the most comprehensive genetic studies on prehistoric dogs to date, Losey and a foreign team of more than 50 researchers have resorted to wolf DNA since the end of the last ice age, about 11,500 years ago.
Dogs were the first pets, little is known about their genetic history.
The oldest dog burial discovered dates back about 14,000 years, however, the species have emerged much earlier.
A species of grey wolf now extinct has given rise to fashionable dogs; however, no one knows exactly where or when this happened.
Some say that dogs were born in the Americas, while others have reported that dogs have been domesticated twice, once each in Asia and Europe, although the main points are unclear.
“No one has discovered a long-standing response that convinces others for more than a year or two until new knowledge is published,” Losey said.
“The way to do this is to hint at this genetic diversity. And then we can answer that question that has persisted since Darwin’s time. “
Losey said mapping the wolves’ DNA would “refine” the mystery of the dog.
Researchers lately know “almost nothing” about the diversity of Ice Age wolves, he said.
“If we know what its genetic variation was in the Ice Age, then we can just say, “Okay, this wolf organization here probably gave birth to dogs,” but we don’t really have any idea about that. “
Losey’s task is to obtain DNA samples that have been unearthed from all over Siberia for the project. Ancient and intact DNA samples are rare, but you have already discovered promising samples for the study.
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His “favorite” is that of a wolf buried 50 kilometers from where a dog adorned with a necklace with elk teeth buried near Lake Baikal in southern Siberia.
The well-preserved wolf in question buried near Irkutsk, Russia, about 8,000 years ago.
“It’s not in the Ice Age, it’s in the Holocene, but it’s still a specimen very early,” Losey said. “We know it’s a giant adult male animal that weighs more than a hundred pounds. A big, big wolf. “
The remains are disconcerting. The wolf buried in a place that soon became a giant human cemetery.
“There is a kind of reverence or honor, respecting this animal when it died; buried him,” Losey said.
“Then, at approximately two hundred meters around this wolf skeleton, there are more than a hundred people buried. It’s like they opened the cemetery for human burials. “
Losey and his colleagues sequenced the genomes of 27 dogs.
The researchers relied on the genetics recovered from fossilized remains, selecting more than 2,000 specimens from Europe, Siberia and the Near East, dating back about 11,000 years.
They also collected 17 sets of human genomes from other people living in approximately the same places and times as the dogs they had sampled.
The study, in October, shows that the diaspora of dogs since prehistory reflects that of humans.
When ancient humans explored new worlds, and unknown cultures collided, the dogs were there.
Losey said humans set out into new territory for dogs they already knew.
Just as human ancestry has changed, as a result of mass migration or the discovery of new industrial routes, the lineage of dogs has also changed.
“This shows us that, on many issues of the past, in a very remote past” (until 9,000 years ago), “we had no human migration in other parts of the continent. “
“There were other people who came with their dogs. You can see it if you look through time. “
In all the tests, the boy’s story and the dog’s story matched.
Losey said the most productive example of studies on the movement of agricultural villages in Europe about 5,000 years ago.
When the first farmers emigrated from what is now Turkey, they brought dogs.
“Previously, Europe fully occupied through fodder other people, others who hunted, collected, fished, etc. , and then agriculture began to expand in the Middle East, so other people have sheep and goats, domesticated plants and dogs. . As agriculture, it spreads, as do other people’s dogs. “
He showed that even 11 millennia ago, dogs had been domesticated long enough to produce five different genetic lines.
Losey said that understanding the history of dogs was detached from our own ancestors. Even thousands of years ago, dogs had already gained a position in human societies.
“All the basics of our dog dates came thousands of years ago,” Losey said. “The way we feel about dogs is unique and has a very deep history. “
Journalist
Wallis Snowdon is a virtual journalist at CBC Edmonton. Originally from New Brunswick, her career as a journalist took her from Nova Scotia to Fort McMurray. Share your stories with Wallis at wallis. snowdon cbc. ca
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