Ancient genomes reveal the common history of human and dog.

At the end of October, 2020 Science magazine published an article about the evolutionary genetics of humans and dogs.

I am not allowed to republish the full text, despite being an AAAS member, but I am sure that selected quotes will be alright.

The article was written by Pavlos Pavlidis and Mehmet Somel.

Dogs likely evolved from a wolf population that self-domesticated, scavenging for left-overs from Palaeolithic hunter-gatherers in Eurasia. However, the exact timing and geographic location where the dog lineage started remain unknown, owing to the scarcity of Palaeolithic dogs in the archaeological record. Analyses of genetic data suggest that dog-wolf divergence took place ~25,000 to 40,000 years ago, providing an earliest possible date for dog domestication.

The last paragraph in the short article is as follows:

For example, there is evidence that pigs were domesticated in both Anatolia and China. For dogs, however, the story is different. Dogs and modern-day Eurasian grey wolves appear as monophyletic groups; that is, any dog is genetically closer to another dog than to a wolf, and vice versa, Monophyly supports a single origin of dogs from a possible extinct wolf lineage.

Absolutely fascinating!

A couple of photographs, courtesy of Pexels, to close the piece.

oooo

See you tomorrow.

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