Proto-Shaman
03-22-2015, 05:27 PM
Fossil DNA Analysis Reveal 33000 Years Old Dog Ancestor Canid in Siberian Altai
Analysis of DNA extracted from a fossil tooth recovered in southern Siberia confirms that the tooth belonged to one of the oldest known ancestors of the modern dog, and is described in research published March 6 in the open access journal PLOS ONE by Anna Druzhkova from the Institute of Molecular and Cellular Biology, Russian Federation, and colleagues from other institutions.
The research team compared their sample of mitochondrial DNA from the ancient skull with samples from 70 different modern breeds of dog, along with 30 different wolf and 4 different coyote DNA samples. Their analysis found that the fossil’s DNA didn’t match any of the other samples perfectly, but most closely resembled the modern dog breeds, sharing the most similarities with Tibetan Mastiffs (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tibetan_Mastiff), Newfoundlands (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Newfoundland_(dog)) and Siberian Huskies (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Siberian_Husky) in particular.
http://public.media.smithsonianmag.com/legacy_blog/skull-2.jpg
A top view of the skull. Image via PLOS ONE/Ovodov et. al.
The analysis showed 99% similarity to dogs, but no exact match to existing dogs or wolves. Researchers debated about when man first domesticated dogs, but most scientists think that modern lineages of dogs started about 15,000 years ago in China while other analyses supports the Middle East and Europe.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Origin_of_the_domestic_dog#Druzhkova_et_al.
http://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0057754
Analysis of DNA extracted from a fossil tooth recovered in southern Siberia confirms that the tooth belonged to one of the oldest known ancestors of the modern dog, and is described in research published March 6 in the open access journal PLOS ONE by Anna Druzhkova from the Institute of Molecular and Cellular Biology, Russian Federation, and colleagues from other institutions.
The research team compared their sample of mitochondrial DNA from the ancient skull with samples from 70 different modern breeds of dog, along with 30 different wolf and 4 different coyote DNA samples. Their analysis found that the fossil’s DNA didn’t match any of the other samples perfectly, but most closely resembled the modern dog breeds, sharing the most similarities with Tibetan Mastiffs (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tibetan_Mastiff), Newfoundlands (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Newfoundland_(dog)) and Siberian Huskies (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Siberian_Husky) in particular.
http://public.media.smithsonianmag.com/legacy_blog/skull-2.jpg
A top view of the skull. Image via PLOS ONE/Ovodov et. al.
The analysis showed 99% similarity to dogs, but no exact match to existing dogs or wolves. Researchers debated about when man first domesticated dogs, but most scientists think that modern lineages of dogs started about 15,000 years ago in China while other analyses supports the Middle East and Europe.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Origin_of_the_domestic_dog#Druzhkova_et_al.
http://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0057754