Geneticists at Oxford University have shown that the domestication of wolves (later becoming dogs) took place in parallel in Eastern and Western Eurasia. Moreover, these processes took place autonomously, and only much later the ancient dogs "united".
The results of the research of geneticists were published in the scientific journal Science. Previously, experts believed that the domestication of the wolf was a one-time event. But they argued about the territory on which the first ancient dogs appeared. Now, after the work of geneticists from Oxford, light has shed on this question. True, at the same time, new challenges for scientists appeared, but some of the disagreements were nevertheless removed.
Man has domesticated dogs since the Stone Age, and long before the domestication of other animals. This was facilitated by the fact that dogs, like humans, are omnivores. Unlike wolves, they can digest starch and other plant foods. It is by genes that are responsible for the ability to digest starch that scientists often determine whether they are examining the remains of a wolf or a dog.
At the same time, the remains of animals with such a gene are regularly found in ancient settlements both in Europe and in Asia. Moreover, there are a number of other differences between them at the genetic level. This introduced some confusion in the version about the time and place of the first domestication of dogs. As it turned out, the supporters of most of the popular versions were partly right in these disputes. Since at about the same time both in the territory of modern Ireland and in Altai there were already domesticated dogs.
At the same time, East Asian dogs differed significantly from European ones. But later, finding themselves in Europe, they drove out most of their "Western" brethren. At the same time, a number of genetic differences still remained, which was the cause of controversy in scientific circles.
Now geneticists from the University of Oxford are busy clarifying the exact homeland of European and Asian dogs. By the way, given the large number of "applicants" for this role, it is possible that further research will show that dogs have been tamed autonomously, not only in different parts of Eurasia, but also in different regions of Europe or Asia. That is, the historical homelands of dogs, theoretically, may be more than two.
Egor Grom
