Researchers looked at dog DNA going back to a period immediately following the last ice age to learn about movement and patterns of ancient dogs and their relationship with humans.
By sequencing the DNA of 27 dogs found in Europe, the Near East, and Siberia, team members discovered five different types of dogs with distinct genetic ancestries dating from before any other animal had been domesticated.
“We examined dogs from across the old world, and they represent a period that stretches almost 11,000 years back in time,” says Anna Linderholm, director of the BiG (bioarchaeology and genomics) Laboratory and an archaeologist at Texas A&M University.
Linderholm was part of the genomics team that extracted DNA from skeletal material to see how dogs evolved from thousands of years ago when all humans were still hunters and gatherers.
via Whisker Therapy