Complete Mitochondrial Genomes of Ancient Canids Suggest a European Origin of Domestic Dogs

2013/11/14 by Olaf Thalmann, Beth Shapiro, Peng Cui +28 · 20 citations
Biochemistry, Genetics and Molecular Biology · Environmental Science · Immunology and Microbiology · #Human-Animal Interaction Studies #Wildlife Ecology and Conservation #Rabies epidemiology and control

paper · doi:10.1126/science.1243650

openalex publication_date 2013/11/14 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/08/01

Abstract

The geographic and temporal origins of the domestic dog remain controversial, as genetic data suggest a domestication process in East Asia beginning 15,000 years ago, whereas the oldest doglike fossils are found in Europe and Siberia and date to >30,000 years ago. We analyzed the mitochondrial genomes of 18 prehistoric canids from Eurasia and the New World, along with a comprehensive panel of modern dogs and wolves. The mitochondrial genomes of all modern dogs are phylogenetically most closely related to either ancient or modern canids of Europe. Molecular dating suggests an onset of domestication there 18,800 to 32,100 years ago. These findings imply that domestic dogs are the culmination of a process that initiated with European hunter-gatherers and the canids with whom they interacted.

Citations

• Ultrafast Approximation for Phylogenetic Bootstrap
• Dating of the human-ape splitting by a molecular clock of mitochondrial DNA
• Rethinking dog domestication by integrating genetics, archeology, and biogeography
• Mitogenomic analyses of caniform relationships
• Genetic Evidence for an East Asian Origin of Domestic Dogs
• Genome sequence, comparative analysis and haplotype structure of the domestic dog
• Improving Marginal Likelihood Estimation for Bayesian Phylogenetic Model Selection
• A Draft Sequence of the Neandertal Genome
• Pre-Columbian origins of Native American dog breeds, with only limited replacement by European dogs, confirmed by mtDNA analysis
• MrBayes 3.2: Efficient Bayesian Phylogenetic Inference and Model Choice Across a Large Model Space

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• Canidae [wikipedia]
• New Guinea singing dog [wikipedia]
• Subspecies of Canis lupus [wikipedia]