General Discussion
In reply to the discussion: Can someone prove to me that dogs are canines? [View all]hlthe2b
(115,299 posts)discounted, discredited, nor countered. I provided a link to the actual study (and some media stories on the finding) in my posts above, which I will copy below for your convenience. The PBS blurb is old and based on the old assumptions (a 1997 study). In the scientific community, this 2014 brand spanken new study is getting lots of attention because many had predicted as much and it is well done.
http://www.livescience.com/42649-dogs-closest-wolf-ancestors-extinct.html
http://www.plosgenetics.org/article/info:doi/10.1371/journal.pgen.1004016
Genome Sequencing Highlights the Dynamic Early History of Dogs
Published: January 16, 2014
Abstract
To identify genetic changes underlying dog domestication and reconstruct their early evolutionary history, we generated high-quality genome sequences from three gray wolves, one from each of the three putative centers of dog domestication, two basal dog lineages (Basenji and Dingo) and a golden jackal as an outgroup. Analysis of these sequences supports a demographic model in which dogs and wolves diverged through a dynamic process involving population bottlenecks in both lineages and post-divergence gene flow. In dogs, the domestication bottleneck involved at least a 16-fold reduction in population size, a much more severe bottleneck than estimated previously. A sharp bottleneck in wolves occurred soon after their divergence from dogs, implying that the pool of diversity from which dogs arose was substantially larger than represented by modern wolf populations. We narrow the plausible range for the date of initial dog domestication to an interval spanning 1116 thousand years ago, predating the rise of agriculture. In light of this finding, we expand upon previous work regarding the increase in copy number of the amylase gene (AMY2B) in dogs, which is believed to have aided digestion of starch in agricultural refuse. We find standing variation for amylase copy number variation in wolves and little or no copy number increase in the Dingo and Husky lineages. In conjunction with the estimated timing of dog origins, these results provide additional support to archaeological finds, suggesting the earliest dogs arose alongside hunter-gathers rather than agriculturists. Regarding the geographic origin of dogs, we find that, surprisingly, none of the extant wolf lineages from putative domestication centers is more closely related to dogs, and, instead, the sampled wolves form a sister monophyletic clade. This result, in combination with dog-wolf admixture during the process of domestication, suggests that a re-evaluation of past hypotheses regarding dog origins is necessary.