Canine skull link between wolves and domesticated dogs

[elenamarie]

I read somewhere that Sibes were genetically closer to wolves than any other breed, but I can't find the source! This article says Samoyeds are closer. Hmmmmm. Anyway, thought it was interesting.

Ancient dog skull unearthed in Siberia

A very well-preserved 33,000 year old canine skull from a cave in the Siberian Altai mountains shows some of the earliest evidence of dog domestication ever found.

But the specimen raises doubts about early man's loyalty to his new best friend as times got tough.

The findings come from a Russian-led international team of archaeologists.

The skull, from shortly before the peak of the last ice age, is unlike those of modern dogs or wolves.

The study is published in the open access journal Plos One.

Although the snout is similar in size to early, fully domesticated Greenland dogs from 1,000 years ago, its large teeth resemble those of 31,000 year-old wild European wolves.

This indicates a dog in the very early stages of domestication, says evolutionary biologist Dr Susan Crockford, one of the authors on the study.

"The wolves were not deliberately domesticated, the process of making a wolf into a dog was a natural process," explained Dr Crockford of Pacific Identifications, Canada.

But for this to happen required settled early human populations: "At this time, people were hunting animals in large numbers and leaving large piles of bones behind, and that was attracting the wolves," she said.

The most curious, least fearful wolves tended to have more juvenile characteristics with shorter, wider snouts and smaller, more crowded teeth, features that, over generations, came to define the domesticated dog.

These early dogs would have been useful to people in cleaning up scraps and fending off other predators such as bears, but after the ice age, over the last 10,000 years, they became key members of the team, believes Oxford University archaeologist Professor Thomas Higham, a co-author on the study.

"When you've got hunting dogs, all of a sudden it's a game changer. Hunters with dogs are much better than sole hunters," he told BBC News.

Intriguingly though, this much older early Siberian dog seems to have hit an evolutionary dead end. While people continued to occupy the Altai through the depths of the last ice age, they seem to have done so without their dogs, perhaps as food became more scarce.

"What the ice age did was to cause people to move around more," said Dr Crockford, halting the process of domestication and setting wolves and people back into competition for perhaps 20,000 years.

Fortunately, the closest modern dog, the Siberian Samoyed bred to herd and guard reindeer, seems to have taken up where its ancient predecessor left off.

[Tikaani&Aiyana]

very interesting, great post +1

[elenamarie]

Ahhh, here it is.

Genes say some dogs have a lot in common with wolves

WASHINGTON (AP)  That wiggly puppy pestering its owner for a chew toy may not look much like its wolf ancestors, but a Seattle genetic research project on our canine companions shows many have more in common with White Fang than some people might think.

Like humans, dogs have about 99% of their genes in common with one another. But a few very distinct genetic differences separate them into some 400 breeds known worldwide.

Researchers who compared dog genes to wolves found that a group of ancient dog types split off first. Later, the majority of canines evolved into three other clusters of dog variants  hunters, herders and guard dogs  largely as a result of breeding programs developed over the past couple of hundred years.

Among those closest to their wild wolf ancestors are the Siberian husky, Chinese Shar-Pei and African basenji.

"One of the most interesting questions still to understand ... is why did the wolf keep locked in its genome everything that was necessary to make a Pekingese to a Great Dane," said Elaine A. Ostrander of the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center in Seattle.

Ostrander, a co-author of the study in Thursday's issue of the journal Science, said dogs share the human environment and diseases, so learning more about their genetic development also can shed light on human diseases.

Human families are too small and "it's often difficult to get samples from more than one or two generations, whereas dog families are huge ... and you can get DNA for two, three, four generations," she said. "That gives you enormous statistical power for understanding the genetics."

In the process, scientists learned some interesting things about dogs.

For example, at least two breeds long thought to be ancient, the Ibizan hound and pharaoh hound, were found not to be so old after all. Because of their resemblance to dogs depicted on ancient Egyptian tombs, they had been considered among the oldest of breeds. However, their genes indicate these breeds had died out and have been redeveloped in more recent times, the researchers said.

Two separate breeds recognized by the American Kennel Club  Belgian Tervuren and Belgian sheepdog  turned out to be genetically identical.

According to co-author Leonid Kruglyak of the Howard Hughes Medical Institute in Seattle, the study found that while dogs have much in common, the 1% of their genes that determine different breeds are genetically quite distinct.

"These differences are so distinct that we could just feed a dog's genetic pattern into the database, and the computer could match it to a breed," said Kruglyak.

That was surprising because most of the breeds were genetically isolated only in the 19th century, with the advent of breed clubs and breed standards, he said.

Two branches of the canine family tree were the earliest to diverge from the wolves, the study found.

One branch includes the oriental breeds Shar-Pei, Shiba Inu, chow chow and Akita; the other includes the seemingly diverse breeds of African basenji, Siberian husky, Alaskan malamute, Afghan hound and Saluki.

In addition to these ancient dogs, three other groups were developed later, including canines for guarding, herding and hunting.

Of 85 breeds tested, only four failed to show consistent sets of genes in common. They were the perro de Presa Canario, German shorthaired pointer, Australian shepherd and Chihuahua.

In addition to the virtually identical genetics of Belgian sheepdog and Belgian Tervuren, the study also showed five pairs of breeds with very similar genetics: Alaskan malamute and Siberian husky, collie and Shetland sheepdog, greyhound and whippet, Bernese mountain dog and greater Swiss mountain dog, and bull mastiff and mastiff.

Patti Strand, an American Kennel Club board member, hailed the study as "monumental."

"Being able to utilize the new findings of molecular genetics greatly enhances our ability to ensure longer, happier lives for all dogs, whether mixes or breeds," she said.

Diane Vasey, director of development for the AKC Canine Health Foundation, said the research will help people who own dogs of unknown origin determine their pet's lineage or heritage as well as help veterinarians deal with genetic disorders associated with certain breeds.

Vasey and Strand were not part of the research team, though the AKC helped the researchers obtain DNA samples.

[elenamarie]

very interesting, great post +1

I thought it was interesting in light of what I've read of the Chukchi's breeding of Sibes. Tribeswomen would nurse orphaned pups, the dogs were so valued. This other, extinct breed didn't have the benefit of that sort of relationship I suppose.

And thanks for the +1, that was nice.

[Woodsman]

In the National Geographic program "And Man Created Dog", the Siberian Husky was used to demonstrate the similarities of the "proto-dog" to wolves. Though Sibes have smaller teeth than wolves, They can certainly land a pretty nasty bite (si I can attest to!) Good thread. Richard.