Origins of the dog

[grenzehund]

An article (here) in the NYTimes reports that analysis of the canine genome has led researchers to conclude that the domestication of the dog occurred in the Middle East. (The scientific article appears in Nature.)

 

An amusing quote:

 

"Dr. Wayne [a primary researcher] was surprised to find that all the herding dogs grouped together, as did all the sight hounds and the scent hounds, making a perfect match between dogs’ various functions and the branches on the genetic tree. “I thought there would be many ways to build a herding dog and that they’d come from all over the tree, but there are not,” Dr. Wayne said."

 

Susan

[JohnLloydJones]

An article (here) in the NYTimes reports that analysis of the canine genome has led researchers to conclude that the domestication of the dog occurred in the Middle East. (The scientific article appears in Nature.)

As usual, Terrierman has url=http://terriermandotcom.blogspot.com/2010/03/dog-origins-we-have-no-idea-say.html]something interesting to say[/url] on the subject. This new analysis by Wayne is considerably more extensive than the Swedish study Terrierman also references, so I would assume it carries more weight. Wayne does note that some breeds do appear to have Asian wolf influence as well.