Dogs migrated to the United States with the first human settlers 10,000 years ago

Scientists on Wednesday discovered the oldest fossils of a domestic dog over 10,000 years old in the United States, claiming that the animals came with the first waves of human settlers. It is believed that humans migrated from Siberia to North America via the Bering Strait at the end of the last ice age – 30,000 to 11,000 years ago. The history of dogs has been intertwined with humans since ancient times, and the study of core DNA can provide a good timeline for human migration.

Dogs are an approximation of human aggression, and our data help provide not only a timeline, but also a place for dogs and people to enter the United States.

A new study from the University of Buffalo has examined mitochondrial DNA from bone fragments found in southeastern Alaska. The group initially thought the piece belonged to a bear.

But on closer examination it was part of the femur of a dog that lived in the area 10,150 years ago and shared a genetic line with American dogs that lived before the arrival of the European breed.

“Because dogs are an approximation of human aggression, our data can help provide not only a time, but also a place for dogs and people to enter the United States,” said Charlotte Linquist, an evolutionary biologist at Buffalo University and Southern University. Dakota.

He said the results were published in the newspaper Activities of the Royal Society b, Supports the theory that humans came to North America from Siberia.

“Southeast Alaska may have served as a snow-free stop, and now – along with our dog – we hope the early human migration to the area will be greater than some previously suspected,” he said. Lindquist said.

Old migration

Carbon isotope analysis of the bone fragment showed that the ancient dog from southeastern Alaska contained seafood containing fish and seal and whale remains.

Lindquist said the dogs did not come to North America at the same time. Some later came with the Thule people from East Asia, while Siberian Huskies were brought to Alaska during the Golden Rush of the 19th century.

There has long been a controversy as to whether the first humans entered North America via a continental walkway that formed when the ice caps receded or formed on the North Pacific coast thousands of years ago.

Earlier estimates of the age of the dog remains were younger than the fragments found by Lindquist and his team, which suggest that the dogs came to the mainland during past land migrations.

Lindquist said his findings support the theory that dogs actually came to North America during the first waves of human migration.

“We have evidence that the coastal edge of the ice began to melt at least 17,000 years ago, while the inner pavement was only possible about 13,000 years ago,” he declared. AFP.

“There is a lot of genetic evidence for the existence of the coastal road for the first Americans 16,000 years ago. Our study supports the fact that our coastal dog is the offspring of the dogs that participated in this early migration.

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