RETRIEVING HISTORY: Where did our best friend originate? Researchers are looking to DNA to dig up answers about where, when and why pooches became popular
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From precious pomeranians to mangy mutts, all domestic dogs (Canis familiaris) seem to be descended from the Eurasian gray wolf (Canis lupis). But what we still don't know is exactly when and where our best friends transformed from predators into partners. And such knowledge might help solve the long-disputed question of exactly why dogs were the first animal to be domesticated.
The dog genome (courtesy of a boxer named Tasha) was first decoded in 2005—and even before that researchers had been using genetic tools to track Fido's first home. Early research pointed toward east Asia as the locus of first taming after the discovery of high genetic diversity and other key markers in dog populations from various villages there.
Some investigators, however, have since pointed out that the genetic search sampled more east Asian village dogs, neglecting similar pups roaming other villages around the globe. That's where the Village Dog Genetic Diversity Project at Cornell University comes in. Starting with a recent genetic analysis of dogs in African villages, the Cornell group hopes ultimately to create a detailed DNA-based map of canine ancestry worldwide, which in turn should fetch a new understanding of the ancient humans who took them in.
One part of that new insight appeared earlier this month in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS), in a study that calls into question the assumption of dogs' east Asian origin. A team led by Adam Boyko, a researcher at Cornell's Carlos D. Bustamante Lab, sampled 318 village dogs in Africa (as well as hundreds of dogs from North America and Europe for comparison) and discovered that the high genetic diversity of canines there resembles that found in east Asia. "We found almost without exception they're descended from different ancestral populations," Boyko says of the village dogs sampled in Africa. That means they may have been there just as long as others had been in east Asia.
Researchers have also yet to figure out when people first began raising dogs. The going theory is that dogs were domesticated somewhere between 15,000 and 40,000 years ago. But, Boyko explains, genetic testing has not gone deep enough to come up with a more refined date.
To try to track down some more clues, field crews have fanned out around the globe this summer to test village dogs in Vietnam, New Guinea, Malaysia and other locations in Eurasia. "That's a big place, and we need to get more data," says Boyko, who owns a mixed-breed dog himself (which, after some genetic testing, turned out to be part chow—one of the more ancient breeds).
Of course, scrappy village dogs aren't often the focus of heartfelt conservation efforts, and some even face active elimination programs. But these pups also have challenges from newly arrived European-descent dogs, which threaten to make a splash in the regional gene pool. "It is unclear the degree to which older populations will be able to maintain their genetic identity and persist in the face of modernity," Boyko and his co-authors wrote in the PNAS paper. So time is of the essence in digging up a solid answer about doggie descent.
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14 Comments
Add CommentMy boxer, Herkules, a brindle is still evolving and taking on more human charastics. He learned to mimic my facial expressions to tell me what he wants and when he wants to play. When I visit my sister, Herkules chatters to her like a child would to its favorite aunt...it is not a bark or growl, but a kind of voice that you can almost understand. I think he can also understand, hear or sense your thoughts because when someone walks by him, that gives you that creepy feeling in the back of your mind, he posters himself like he is protecting me. When someone walks by that you can tell is very kind and gentle, like a gentle child or grandmother, he becomes very friendly with them and looks at me for approval to approach them and gets a submissive or non-threating posture.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisAnyone who's ever around dogs will never ask why humans domesticated them first. They are remarkable and they become part of your existance.
Hunting partners and sentry duty. That's how man and dog came together and that is why they were domesticated.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisSo, all dogs are oppressed wolves.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisThe whale tie-in is the real kicker.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisAnyone that knows anything about dogs knows that dogs were not domesticated by people. People were domesticated by dogs.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisHumans learned to hunt the savana by learning from dogs and became partners to steal from the big cats and keep the big cats from eating them, good deal for both.
Later humans invented weapons (claws) and dogs became junior partners. Anyone that has worked with dogs to control or hunt other animals knows that dogs are partners.
Dogs are not wolves, while caninus ( fox, dog, wolf, coyote, jackel ) can interbreed they generally are quite tribal and will kill one another. Oh yes, in Africa there are wild dogs on the plains that are indistingishable from local domesticated dogs, guess that's why they are not included in modern research on dogs origin.
In Hungary, an extensive researh program is going on, foremostly concentrated on the dog-human behaviour but also on the ancestry of the dogs under auspices of Vilmos Csanyi, professor eremitus of the Ethology Department at the Eötvös Lorand University.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisHis book: "If Dogs Could Talk" is a highly recommendable introduction into this subject.
According to his research, it is most likely that dogs and man has domesticated eachother for at least 100000 years ago.
we have dogs, we love them, take them for granted, they are our best companions, and yet apparently we know nothing about their origins. Or do we?
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisCats also domesticated us!
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisRather than look at dogs as oppressed wolves, one can look at t benifits that both have gained from this partnership. I recently encountered a statistic to t effect that 98% of t biomass of land vertabrates are acounted for by man and our co-specis. What dogs and all living things "want" to do is replicate succesfully. Cows and dogs would not have done nearly as well w/o our help. W dogs in particular it is a relationship that is mutualy benificial.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisThat depends on your definition of "wolf" and "dog". You're basing this difference on phenotype, whereas genotypically, dogs and wolves are as similar as, say, white northern Europeans and black sub-Saharan Africans. Don't let the outward variability of phenotypical characteristics mislead you, Rover is more wolf than you think.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisI believe the origin of dogs will not be understood as long as we stick to two myths:
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to this1. Myth: Humans domesticated dogs.
Why do scientists in this field reject the simple idea of evolution, i.e. dog-wolves and humans, could both increase their evolutionary fitness by getting more cooperative.
In many cultures today, dogs are not seen as friends but as vermin. For Muslimic people, calling someone a dog is the worst slander at all. A dog in the house may make it impossible fo an angel to enter it.
Nevertheless, dogs nearby may warn people of threats. So, many Muslims don't want them in their houses but the animals are welcome in the vicinity.
2. Myth: Early humans (before the Neolithic revolution) were hunters.
Hunters and wolves are fierce competitors wherever they meet, and there is no reason to believe that this was different in the past.
A pre-neolithic society that does not rely on hunting is much more likely to benefit from having dog-wolves in their domain: Their fine senses and strong aggression may help identify and repel enemies that are interested in people's property.
Dawkins in his latest book "The Greatest Show On Earth" recounts how quickly, "tame" dogs evolved from their less docile ancectors, and therefor how insignifigent and superficial these differences truely are.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisA Russian scientist working w foxes was able to develope a variety of super docile foxes from wild silver foxes w/in 35 generations. W/in this time over 80% of t offspring activly sought out human contact and showed almost no tendecy to flee.
In t geological time scales that these specis are are looking at, 35 generations and whatever # was involved for t transition from wolf to dog is also going to be of similar insignifigence.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisDOES ANYONE KNOW THE ORIGIN OF THE DOG NAME "FIDO" ?
My father-in-law told me the story of a friend of his who worked for a cargo airline in the 1950's. On one transatlantic flight, he made a refueling stop in the Azores Islands. Checking the hold, he found a cage containing what appeared to be a german shepherd.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisDeciding it could use a "pit stop", he fashioned a length of rope into a leash and walked it, gave it some water, and put it back into its cage, then resumed his flight. On his arrival at his european destination, he mentioned his experience to the local company agent, who blanched.
It seems the "german shepherd" was actually a young wolf, bound for the local zoo. :)