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Human history is for the dogs. The largest-ever study of ancient genomes from the animals suggests that where people went, so did their four-legged friends — to a point. The research also identified major regional shifts in human ancestry that left little mark on dog populations, as well as times when dogs changed, but their masters didn’t.The analysis of more than two dozen Eurasian dogs also suggests the animals were domesticated and became widespread around the world well before 11,000 years ago. But it does not make any claims as to when or where domestication from wolves happened, an issue that has vexed researchers and sparked sometimes heated debate.Ancient genomes heat up dog domestication debate“Dogs are a separate tracer dye for human history,” says Pontus Skoglund, a population geneticist at the Francis Crick Institute in London who co-led the study, which is published on 29 October in Science1. “Sometimes human DNA might not show parts of prehistory that we can see with dog genomes.”Until the past few years, canine genetic history has been told largely through DNA from modern dogs. But this has offered a muddled picture, because much of early dogs’ genetic diversity was probably lost when modern breeds were established. The first studies of ancient dog genomes hinted at past changes in canine populations. But with just six ancient dog or wolf genomes available until now, such conclusions have been preliminary.
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Pedigree chumsTo expand the pool of ancient dog DNA, Skoglund’s lab joined groups led by Greger Larson, an evolutionary geneticist at the University of Oxford, UK, and archaeologist Ron Pinhasi at the University of Vienna. Together, the teams sequenced 27 ancient dog genomes. The samples came from Europe, the Middle East and Siberia, and ranged in age from 11,000 to 100 years old.By modelling the relationships in and between groups of ancient and modern dogs, the researchers determined that a 10,900-year-old dog from Russia was distinct from later ancient European, Middle Eastern, Siberian or American dogs, as well as a canine lineage characterized by modern New Guinea singing dogs (which are related to Australian dingoes). “Already, 11,000 years ago, there were at least 5 different groups of dogs across the world, so the origin of dogs must have been substantially earlier than that,” says Skoglund.