“Dogor” is preserved in the Siberian permafrost. His remains, found in 2018, date back to 18,000. years. Scientists gave him an unusual name because it resembles both a dog and a wolf (“dog or wolf”). The remains of the animal are in great condition. Even the fluffy hair and unbroken mustache have survived.
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Until now, it was thought that this mysterious pup was a dog. It is supposed to come from the time when man tamed the first animals. In a new study designed to understand dog domestication, scientists analyzed the genome of Dogor along with that of 72 ancient wolves. What are the Effects?
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It turns out that the mummified animal is a wolf. Moreover, it was not very closely related to the earliest dogs. An expert in ancient animal genetics admits that while we know that dogs were the first animals to be domesticated as early as the Ice Age, the rest of them remain a great mystery of prehistory.
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We don’t know where in the world it happened. We don’t know what group of people was involved, and we don’t know if it happened once, or if it happened multiple times, ‘Anders Bergström, a postdoctoral researcher in ancient genomics at the Francis Crick Institute in London, told Live Science.
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The mysterious animal from Siberia is a wolf
During the research, scientists looked for clues as to where domesticated dogs might come from (Latin. Canis lupus familiaris). There are many indications that dogs were domesticated from wolves (from Latin. Canis lupus). Unfortunately, the genes of modern wolves have changed too much to figure out which wolves have abandoned their wild lives to connect with humans.
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Probably the domestication took place somewhere in the East, in Asia, rather not in Europe. Asia is obviously very large, we can’t narrow down where it happened more precisely, explains Bergström.
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Northeast Siberia, where “Dogor” was found, does not appear to be the zero point for the genetic transition of wolves and dogs. According to Bergström, the wolves of this region are not closely related to the oldest dogs. But there are many other areas in Asia where ancient wolf DNA has yet to be collected and studied. This is why it is permissible for wolf dogs to come from a place that has never been sampled.
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