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Texas, July 7 (IBNS): Dogs have been man's best friend for over 10,000 years, but a new study shows that the road is tough: their ancestors from the Americas probably come from Siberia, and these early dog populations have almost completely disappeared, but not before leaving a cancerous tumor that is still found in their canine offspring today.
Anna Linderholm, Assistant Professor of Anthropology at the A & M University of Texas, participated in this study. , and their work is in the current issue of Science magazine.
The team collected genetic information from 71 remains of ancient dogs from the Americas and found that the first dogs arrived alongside people who eventually settled in North, Central and South America. Texas A & M University website
But a more in-depth study of the ancient dog genomes shows that they have almost completely disappeared as a result of the arrival of European settlers. or no trace in more modern American dogs. The researchers also discovered that a cancerous condition transmitted by mating dogs thousands of years ago is still present today and that it is the last trace of these populations of early dogs arrived in the Americas.
"It's fascinating that a huge population The dogs that have inhabited every corner of Americans for thousands of years could have disappeared so quickly," said the team in a joint statement .
"This suggests that something catastrophic must have occurred, but we do not have evidence of sudden disappearance yet.It is ironic that the only remnant of a population that has probably been wiped out by a disease is the genome of a transmissible cancer. "
Linderholm, who heads the BIG (Laboratory of Bioarchaeology and Genomics) at Texas A & M and who did a lot of genome work, said:" The sudden disappearance of dogs in America was probably associated with European colonization, but we do not know the details yet, this is further evidence of the strong link between humans and dogs.Humans will bring their dogs to every new place that 39, they explore and colonize, regardless of time and space.
"When we compare our old dog DNA to all other known dog / wolf DNAs, we find that the closest Siberian dogs. This reflects what we know about humans at the time and sites in Siberia have records of people using dogs then. "
Linderholm says the study still proves" that we can say with certainty that the first wave of with them.
"But the cancer genome we found was a real surprise," Linderholm said.
"It's the biggest rebound I've seen in any project I've done, it's amazing to think that these cancerous cells are spreading and that it's all over the place." they still exist all over the world.Therefore, in a strange way, the ancient dogs of America live through these cancerous cells. "
The study was funded by the National Environmental Research Council of the United Kingdom.
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