Max Planck Society
The finds push back the presence of domesticated animals in the region by some 3,000 years
Along the Tian Shan and Alay mountain ranges of Central Asia, sheep and other domestic livestock form the core economy of contemporary life. Although it was here that the movements of their ancient predecessors helped to shape the great trade networks of the Silk Road, domestic animals were thought to have come relatively late to the region. A new study, published today in the journal Nature: Human Behavior, reveals that the roots of animal domestication in Central Asia stretch back at least 8,000 years – making the region one of the oldest continuously inhabited pastoral landscapes in the world.
DNA Shows Ancient Siberians Domesticated Dogs, Who Then Helped Settle America
February 05, 2021 13:16 GMT
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Scientists have long sought an indisputable link showing when humans first domesticated dogs, steering a few receptive gray wolves descendants toward lives as lapdogs.
The origins of their domestic relationship is one of the most hotly debated questions around dogs undying loyalty to their masters and humankind’s unparalleled reliance on dogs to get a leg up on other predators in a frequently hostile environment.
Now, a team of interdisciplinary researchers has used DNA and other evidence to assert a tandem movement in and then beyond northeastern Siberia at a key stage of human and canid development late in the last Ice Age.
Dogs ‘were first tamed in Siberia’ and came with settlers to America 15,000 years ago Rob Waugh The first settlers in America were likely accompanied by dogs (Ettore Mazza)
The first settlers in America brought their own dogs with them 15,000 years ago from northeast Asia - hinting that humans first domesticated dogs in Siberia.
The new find suggests that humans first tamed dogs more than 23,000 years ago in Siberia, then travelled West into Europe and Asia and East into America.
The Americas were one of the last areas of the world to be settled by human beings - and by that point, dogs had been domesticated from their wolf ancestors.