The first dogs in the United States came from Siberia and disappeared by European colonization – 05/07/2018

The first dogs that lived in North America came from the vast region of Siberia (Russia) about 9,900 years ago and from appeared because of European colonization since the 15th century, according to a study published in the specialized journal Science .

The oldest dogs found on the mainland, known as "precontact", date from about 9,900 years ago, about 6,500 years after the arrival of the first humans.

A team of 50 researchers badyzed samples of DNA found in 71 old dogs found in North America and Siberia, that they compared genetically with modern dogs. with an unprecedented degree of certainty that American dogs have pbaded through the Bering Strait, by the same route as humans

The DNA of modern American dogs has nothing in common with the ancients, ] that descend dogs of Eastern Siberia

"It is fascinating to see that a dog population that has lived in many parts of the Americas for thousands of years, and which was an integral part of the cultures of the Amerindians, was able to disappear so quickly " says the lead author of the study, Lawrence Frantz, a former DNA expert at Queen Mary University in London

Possible reasons include the disease, cultural persecution or the desire of Europeans to raise their own dogs. But the speed of the disappearance surprised the researchers.

The team of researchers also discovered that the genomic signature of a transmissible cancer affecting dogs appears to be one of the last "living" remains of the genetic heritage of dogs that populated the United States before European contact.

These new findings reinforce the idea As early human inhabitants and their American dogs they faced "many of the same challenges after European contact."

"We know how the indigenous peoples of America suffered the genocidal practices of European settlers." What we have found is that the dogs of these peoples have had an even more devastating history and almost total loss, perhaps as a result of forced cultural changes and diseases, "they concluded.

Source: Agencies