FLICKR, LUKE RATZLAFF
Genetic studies have previously indicated that dogs were first domesticated in China, but the fossil record points to possible origins in Europe and Siberia. Researchers from Cornell University in Ithaca, New York, and their colleagues shed new light on the evolution of man’s best friend in a paper published Monday (October 19) in PNAS, suggesting that the domestic dog first emerged near present-day Nepal and Mongolia.
The international team genotyped 5,392 dogs using blood stored in the Cornell Veterinary Biobank. The samples included blood from 549 “village dogs” from 38 countries, which are not descended from the purebred or mixed-breed populations created in Europe, but instead come from rural areas around the world where they have been allowed to breed naturally. As a result, these ...
