The skull of a “dog” from Goyet Cave in Belgium, This skull has been dated to over 30,000 years ago.
Here’s an abstract from SMBE 2012:
Inferences on dog domestication - genetic analysis of the most ancient dogs utilizing DNA capture arrays
Olaf Thalmann 1,2 , Daniel Greenfield 2 , Matthias Meyer 3 , Susanna Sawyer 3 , Pin Cui 3 , Mietje Germonpre 4 , Mikhail V. Sablin 5 , Francesc Lopez-Giraldez 9 , Daniel LePont 1 , Brian Worthington 10 , Jeff P. Blick 6 , Jeniffer A. Leonard 7 , Richard E. Green 8 , Robert K. Wayne 2
1 University of Turku, Turku, Finland, 2 University of California, Los Angeles, USA, 3 Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology, Leipzig, Germany, 4 Royal Belgian Institute of Natural Sciences, Brussels, Belgium, 5 Zoological Institute RAS, Saint-Petersburg, Russia, 6 Georgia College & State University, Milledgeville, USA, 7 Estacion Biologica de Donana- CSIC, Seville, Spain, 8 University of California, Santa Cruz, USA, 9 Yale University, New Haven, USA, 10 Southeastern Archaeological Research, Inc., Newberry, USAThe geographical and temporal origin of the dog is controversial. Genetic data suggest a domestication event in Asia or the Middle East about 15,000 – 30,000 years ago, whereas the oldest dog-like fossils are found in Europe dating to over 30 thousand years ago. We genetically analyzed the remains of 14 prehistoric wolves and dogs including some of the oldest dog remains described from the New and Old World. Utilizing array based DNA capture techniques coupled with Illumina double indexed sequencing, we targeted a total of ~750,000 nucleotides in each of the ancient canids and additional 20 contemporary wolves from North America and Eurasia. The sequence information comprised the complete mitochondrial genome, 3,000 SNPs previously identified as highly informative for differentiating dogs from wolves, exonic sequences from 62 potential domestication genes and ~150,000 nucleotides of non-coding regions spread throughout the genome. Initial analyses reveal that we have successfully captured and sequenced the complete mitochondrial genome with high coverage as wells as a substantial number of autosomal fragments from ten prehistoric canids and all contemporary wolves. Phylogenetic analysis combining the complete mitochondrial genomes of the prehistoric canids with those of a large collection of modern dogs and wolves result in a statistically well supported tree. While some haplotypes cluster within modern dogs or wolves, others show a basal placement in the phylogeny. The latter finding might support a previous notion that an aberrant lineage of dog-like canids might have existed throughout the northern hemisphere during the late Pleistocene and became globally extinct during the last 20,000 years. We will test this hypothesis by investigating the autosomal loci and employ sophisticated phylogenetic analyses, demographic modeling and selection scans to better understand the influence of early human society and artificial selection on the canine genome.
These dog-like canids are what Mark Derr calls “dogwolves” in How the Dog Became the Dog.
This is the first really in depth genetic study of ancient wolves and dog-like canids.
And what it’s found is that these dog-like canids do not have mtDNA haplotypes that are exactly like modern dogs or modern wolves.
Mitochondrial DNA isn’t everything, and it is possible that some of these older lineages could have been lost in both wolves and domestic dogs.
So the researchers are going to attempt to do a very sophisticated analysis of the genetic material of these animals.
I absolutely love this kind of information! Mark Derr is an excellent reporter and his term- dogwolves- is perfect for domestic canids before mass settlements. I wonder how long the further studies will take?
It will take a while. We’re talking at least a year or more for the studies to make it all the way out of peer review.
When they say they will be comparing the samples “to the modern wolves”, does it include the Canis lupus aureus (the African Grey wolf) and the Ethiopian Wolf, too ?
We must note that the African Grey Wolf (previously known as “Egyptian Jackal”) habitates also in Eritrea and Ethiopia, the places where the oldest Homo fossils have been found .
So I demand that they must absolutely count that wolf in, too.
The lack of DNA connection may be nothing more than a European version of the American Indian dogs — a domesticated line that became extinct due to swamping, disease and replacement. Or, as with Neanderthals — that only the males apparently contributed and the female lines were lost. But very interesting and useful research. I’m hoping for DNA on Dire wolves and some of the other early canids. Would love to see more focus on ancient dogs — they are often far more of a side note than the beads, pottery or weaponry one might find in archeological or palentological sites.
Peggy, has it been firmly established that only the Neanderthal males contributed? I’d read speculation in this regard based on lack of Neanderthal-specific MtDNA in modern humans, but nothing definitive.
I can’t help but wonder how modern coyote, jackal, gray fox, raccoon dog, maned wolf, painted dog, dhole, etc., DNA matches up w/ these ancient canids.
It will never be proven that only Neanderthal males contributed, but no MTDNA from a Neanderthal now exists in H. Sapiens. So it would appear that either it was males only or the female lines were lost. This is the trouble with depending on DNA to tell one “genetic history” — you can only say what is there “now” not what was there. Even DNA from bones is restricted to what bones they FIND, which is not necessarily a representative sample.
Dogs are often overlooked when an anthropological or archeological study is done — as an example the Nat Geo article on a herding community in India had one line mentioning these people depended on their dogs, but only one photo (where the dog was sort of in the background) and nothing on how they were used. Ditto on a similar article on the Sami. I have a copy of “America’s sheep trails” which discusses many of the early sheep routes, including sheep types, numbers, etc. There’s maybe 3 sentences on dogs, and they are all more or less “a German sheepherder with his dog was encountered….”. Basques to Bakersfield, which discusses the sheep industry and how it founded the CA city of Bakersfield has some photos, no discussion on how the dogs were used, WHAT the dogs were or where they came from. It’s very annoying.
The arguement that “it isn’t a dog unless the bones are modified to clearly differentuate from wolves” is another annoyance. The Belgium cave find actually discarded some skulls because they were “too similar to wolves” — as were the skulls of some modern Malinois. I understand that it may be hard to distinguish wolf from dog at the point of domestication, but assuming that because physical change hasn’t occured the animal can’t possibly be domesticated is nuts — and it skews what information we have about the early transition from wolf to dog.