National Geography has published a short article (here) reporting
results of research on African village dog genetics.
I am very happy that they headed the article with,
“Dog breeds were created by human
beings. The village dog created itself.”
They point out that the
commonest breed in the world is the “no breed at all” village dog, and call them
‘The Forever Dog’.
An extract from the article:
“…most of the village dogs
turned out to be as closely related to wolves as they were to fully
domesticated dogs. Rather than being mixed-breed mutts that had gone feral in
historical times, the village dogs had been eking out an existence on the human
fringe for millennia. Their genomes thus reflected a state of early
domestication, before artificial selection and inbreeding directed by humans
had taken over. "When you are looking at village dogs," Adam Boyko
says, "you have something more akin to natural selection, albeit in an
environment that's managed by humans.""
The study also pointed to
Middle Eastern wolves as the originators of these African dogs (but not
necessarily of all dogs).
The Boyko research team are also now seeking funding to do a more intense
study of African village dog genetics, which is good to see as most studies
looking at dog genetics in the search for a better understanding of their roots
focus on sampling a selection of breeds rather than village dogs. It’s perhaps a shame that
the Indian pariah dogs and south-east Asian dingoes/village dogs aren’t
included in this proposed study as that would give a much fuller picture but it
is a definite step in the right direction.
I had never seen a research project seeking funding from the general
public before until I came across their proposal at the Petridish website.
If the subject interests you, you can now directly help through pledging a
donation.
Since there are no wolves in Africa it makes sense that African village dogs have middle astern wolves for ancestors. Is this the case with other dogs?
ReplyDeleteSome studies say so, others point to east asia - but this is the first one I've seen that doesn't focus on taking a selection of modern breeds which probably just confuse the picture. This is why I wish they could include village dogs from areas outside of Africa.
DeleteI'm developing a theory that might explain the conflicting results of mid-east or east asian origin but I need to revise my genetics first.
There is a whole load of inferences that can be made here. If the village dogs are from non-African wolves they probably moved to Africa following human back migration. If they are village dogs rather than camp dogs the date of migration is likely to be more recent ie in the last 10,000 years (since the agricultural revolution and the associated change from camp to village. If all the village dogs look the same the world over then maybe they all come from the same ancestor? If the common ancestor happens to be older than 60,000 years then the camp dog evolved in association with non human hominids i.e. Neanderthal or Homo erectus.Very interesting.
ReplyDelete