Ancient DNA Evidence for Old World Origin of New World Dogs

Mitochondrial DNA sequences isolated from ancient dog remains from Latin America and Alaska showed that native American dogs originated from multiple Old World lineages of dogs that accompanied late Pleistocene humans across the Bering Strait. One clade of dog sequences was unique to the New World,...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Science
Main Authors: Leonard, Jennifer A., Wayne, Robert K., Wheeler, Jane, Valadez, Raúl, Guillén, Sonia, Vilà, Carles
Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
Language:English
Published: American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) 2002
Subjects:
Bering Strait
Alaska
Online Access:http://dx.doi.org/10.1126/science.1076980
https://www.science.org/doi/pdf/10.1126/science.1076980
Description
Summary:Mitochondrial DNA sequences isolated from ancient dog remains from Latin America and Alaska showed that native American dogs originated from multiple Old World lineages of dogs that accompanied late Pleistocene humans across the Bering Strait. One clade of dog sequences was unique to the New World, which is consistent with a period of geographic isolation. This unique clade was absent from a large sample of modern dogs, which implies that European colonists systematically discouraged the breeding of native American dogs.

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