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Prof Daniel Bradley from Trinity
College Dublin and Dr Laurent Frantz, from Oxford University praised the
quality of the Newgrange fossil. Copyright RTÉ
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A dog bone found at an Irish Stone Age
tomb has helped to shed new light on the possible dual origins of pet dogs.
The dog bone which was believed to
date back almost 5,000 years ago, was unearthed at Newgrange in County Meath—an
ancient monument built by Stone Age farmers.
Scientists at Trinity College Dublin
used it to sequence the dog’s genome and in result suggested that modern dogs
may have emerged from two separate domestic of wolves on opposite ends of the
Eurasian continent.
It challenges the previous theories
that man’s best friend originated from a single domestication of wolves in
Asia.
The Newrange dog’s genetic blueprint
was compared to that of 59 ancient dogs, some dating as far back as 14,000
years.
It was also contrasted to the DNA of
2,500 modern dogs.
In a paper published in the ScienceJournal, it is said that the analyses revealed a deep split separating modern
East Asian and Western Eurasian dogs. The findings also suggested that dogs may
have been domesticated independently in Eastern and Western Eurasia from
distinct wolf populations.
Scientists involved in the project
hailed the quality of the Newgrange fossil in helping them to understand how
domestic dogs evolved.
According to Dan Bradley, Professor of
Population Genetics at Trinity College and a senior author of the study, the
Newgrange dog bone had the best preserved ancient DNA we have encountered,
giving us prehistoric genome of rare high quality.
“Ancient DNA is like a time machine,
and allows us to observe the past directly.”
Source: BBC
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