African village dogs are just as genetically diverse as those in East Asia, and they have been found to be closely related to Middle Eastern wolves.
From National Geographic:
Labradors may be the most popular breed of dog, but the most populous kind is no breed at all. That distinction goes to the humble village dog scratching out a semiwild living in and around human settlements.
While a postdoc at Cornell University a few years ago, Adam Boyko became curious about the little-studied village vagrants. Though dogs were first domesticated 20,000 to 15,000 years ago, most breeds go back only a few hundred years. Perhaps village dog DNA might shed light on the long, early history of domestication, when canines were hanging around humans yet not under our domain. But how to get samples?
As it happened, around the same time Boyko’s brother Ryan had married, and he and wife Corin were looking for a cheap honeymoon off the beaten track. The three Boykos decided to merge their two quests. Adam—now at Cornell’s College of Veterinary Medicine—obtained a grant, then enlisted Ryan and Corin to spend their honeymoon traveling around Egypt, Uganda, and Namibia, befriending villagers and local vets. They collected DNA from more than 300 village dogs.
When the samples were analyzed, most of the village dogs turned out to be as closely related to wolves as they were to fully domesticated dogs. Rather than being mixed-breed mutts that had gone feral in historical times, the village dogs had been eking out an existence on the human fringe for millennia. Their genomes thus reflected a state of early domestication, before artificial selection and inbreeding directed by humans had taken over. “When you are looking at village dogs,” Adam Boyko says, “you have something more akin to natural selection, albeit in an environment that’s managed by humans.”
Unexpectedly, the study also helped to challenge the reigning view on the place where dogs first appeared. Fossil evidence had already pinned the transition from wolf to dog somewhere in Europe or Asia, and a 2002 study had shown that East Asian village dogs were more genetically diverse—an indication that wolves had first been domesticated in East Asia. But the Boykos’ 2009 work found that the African village dogs were just as diverse as the East Asian ones. Some also carried a genetic signature shared with Middle Eastern gray wolves, supporting research by Robert Wayne and Bridgett vonHoldt of UCLA that points to the Middle East as the likely cradle of dogs.
The Boykos continue to expand their sample collection, with another expedition planned for Africa. And they’ve also begun using the same techniques to solve a related mystery: the strange disappearance of native dogs in South America. We know from the historical record that Native Americans had dogs. But previous population surveys in the Americas turned up only dogs with European heritage. “How do you ship so many dogs across the world that they completely replace the native dogs?” Boyko wonders, suspecting that in fact there may still be village dogs with native DNA in the remotest areas of the continent. So in August the three Boykos packed their bags and headed into the jungles of Peru, searching for the lost American dog.
I have written about the discovery that African village dogs were just as genetically diverse as East Asian dogs– which in part falsifies the hypothesis that dogs originated in East Asia. People like that hypothesis for some odd reason.
I did not know that the Boykos had discovered that some these African village dogs showed an affinity with Middle Eastern wolves, which I think is very supportive of the hypothesis that Middle Eastern wolves– or very close relatives of the– are the most important population that contributed to the domestic dog.
Now, it doesn’t mean that phenotypically distinct domestic dogs first appeared in the Middle East. It just means that this population contributed to the majority of dogs we have today. The small dog gene that is found in purebred dogs is also found in some Middle Eastern wolves–likely coming from Canis lupus arabs. The smallest members of that subspecies weigh only 25 pounds.
I’m very excited that the Boykos are now looking at Latin American dogs to see if any possess indigenous ancestry. We know that virtually all Native American dogs in the US and Canada have largely been swamped with Western dog blood. Testing village dogs in remote areas of Peru might yield some interesting results, but keep in mind that “double-nosed” village dogs were found in Bolivia a few years ago. They likely derive “double-nosed” pointers that the Spanish brought over. Native peoples liked to use European dogs for the hunt, and in the colonies that later became the United States, laws were passed to prevent European colonists from selling their dogs to the Indians.
Native Americans’ preference for Western dogs would have been an important factor in the extinction of Native American dog strains.
Another important factor is that these dogs may not have had much resistance to European dog diseases. Just as their human owners were no match for small pox, it is possible that common diseases in European dogs were quite devastating to Native dog populations.
And then there is also the simple fact that Native peoples were conquered– and in some cases, exterminated. Massive social disruption leads to people not being able to care for their dogs– much less selectively breeding them. These dogs wound up wandering the countryside, where they either melded into the wolf or coyote population in North America or were shot on sight.
Any dogs that proved useful to the new order in the Americas were quickly absorbed into the growing Western-derived dog population.
To answer the Boykos’ question from an historical perspective, the Spanish were bringing over scores of dogs. Dogs were a major tool of conquest and colonization. The Navajo and Apache herders use their dogs as livestock guardians– a technique they got from the Spanish. The sheep they keep are derived from an old Spanish strain, and it is possible that their dogs trace to Spanish and maybe some remnant Native American dogs.
It will be interesting to see if the Boykos’ work reveals any clues to the extinction of Native American dog strains in South America. It will also be interesting to see if they find any dogs with clear indigenous ancestry. As far as I know, only the dominant hairless mutation that is found in xoloitzcuintli, Peruvian Inca orchids, and “Chinese crested dogs” has been traced to the Americas before the arrival of Columbus.
It will also be interesting to see if any of these dogs, if they prove to have ancestry from indigenous dogs, share signatures with North America wolves or coyotes or with wolves from East Asia. The VonHolt and Wayne study mentioned in this article found that certain East Asian breeds have an affinity with Chinese wolves. Because Native Americans came to the New World via Asia, it would make sense that some of these dogs would show some affinity with Chinese wolves– just as these East Asian breeds do.
Interesting questions.
I don’t know if they can be answered!
See related post:
- Twigs versus logs and the origin of the origin of the domestic dog (Critiques the supposed proof from y chromosome and mtDNA analysis that claims dogs have an East Asian origin. The bulk of the evidence points to the Middle East as the main source for domestic dog genetic diversity.)
“To answer the Boykos’ question from an historical perspective, the Spanish were bringing over scores of dogs. Dogs were a major tool of conquest and colonization. The Navajo and Apache herders use their dogs as livestock guardians– a technique they got from the Spanish. The sheep they keep are derived from an old Spanish strain, and it is possible that their dogs trace to Spanish and maybe some remnant Native American dogs.”
This I’d be highly interested in, as the Bulldogs used by farmers in South USA are actually found along the Hernando de Soto trail, where Spain built forts. In Texas, Bulldogs are also known for guarding sheep and goats. These are also found near the old Spanish forts. Basic type Bulldogs exist as the White English (a Shepherd’s Mastiff type used for guarding cattle, swine, sheep, and on my farm – goats). The other basic type Bulldog is known as the Brindle Bulldog, but come in a variation of type – with two basic types identified (without DNA as of yet) as the Azore Cattle Dog type and the Spanish Alano type.
Thanks for an excellent post! I really appreciate your love of and interest in these things! It makes my day to see you and a few other pursuing these ideas so relentlessly. All I have to do is enjoy you all to get my learning hit for the day!
I believe the first response I ever made on your blog, back in 2009 indicated I thought that if man and wolf evolved in relationship and I believe they did, then they had to be in Africa- probably including the Sahara and the band to the east of it now known as the Middle East was where it happened Then, the Sahara dried up as the north opened up. It was largely a plains type culture for eons, then the environmental changes and moving bands of people drove settlement further and further away. The middle eastern wolves were probably also in Africa as it was all the same ecology for so long, then that particular ecology found its new population and cultural center to the northwest, where the action in Derr’s book takes place. Although I got the right education, I am not an scientist, so I like to speculate on the base the staid and cautious academics will confirm. I do think I have this one right though.
What do you think of the idea grains were first cultivated for beer? I did not read the article or see the video or whatever it was but the idea sets my brain on fire. It was beer that started the whole shebang. I think there may be something to that idea. Beer is my favorite carb. I only control my drinking of it because of the calories. I like being slender, too.
Those plains areas must have been something when the grains ripened. I bet people invented basketry to hold the grains! Weaving the stalks into pouches that anything with legs could carry. Beer invented itself. Then some guys started stockpiling dry grains in mud silos so they could have beer year round….. and the first Mortar and brick building was built to keep grain dry to make good beer. (No one would live in one!) And a brewery, guards and a permanent trading center at each silo solidified good nexuses . I know that is exactly how the story went. It makes so much sense. But, most people did not move into towns for eons more, they made their living on the plains shooting game and gathering grains in season to trade to the silo – and/or whatever else. When and where did horses start being ridden? What fun.
Hi Kate; It certainly makes sense to me. Changing from hunter/gatherer or nomadic pastoral societies to agricultural societies allowed for the growth of civilizations both in terms of complexity and physical numbers. The primary driver for this change was the gathering and cultivation of grains–both for use directly as human food and as feed for livestock. However, these grains had a tendency to mold, sprout, etc. Beer (made from sprouted grains aka malt) and unleavened bread were obvious and relatively easy ways to preserve the goodness in that grain (hardtack lasts forever if kept dry and unfiltered beer is full of nutrition) for use later; just as yoghurt, cheese and the like are good ways to preserve milk; and wine and vinegar are good ways to preserve fruit.
I too love the idea of beer being the catalyst for civilization, and I love beer itself–especially ales, porters and stouts.
http://www.africanis.co.za/africanis-society.htm
I think you will find this site very interesting including the history page. I own an Africanis, and can see differences between her and my own dogs.
This was a fascinating site! Thanks for the link. I can see the origins of several breeds in these dogs: greyhounds, rhodesian ridgebacks, basenji, pharoah hounds.
From the last Ice Age, the steppes of Asia were in fact covered with ice. The Mastiff proto-type, though existing in that area, as it melted, could more likely come from as far as the Sahara. The Mastiff proper is a livestock/ herding dog of cattle (cattle being an old term for all livestock) and the Cattle Cult of the Sahara moved into Eygypt about 6000BC, as the Sahara (once a lush area of greens) had dried up. Still, all societies or cultures said to have the true Mastiff type were of Caucasian Man, including the Eygyptions.
In 1968, I was taught by my Great Uncles that Bulldogs (both those used to guard farms and those that fought in the pits, i.e. Pit Bulls, derived from a mix of the English imports and the old Spanish War Dogs. Since then, my research has proven that dogs from various countries were brought and interbred, including Mastiffs of France, Italy, etc. But, Mark Derr does give a very well thought out explanation.
One may look to the Carolina dogs in comparison to these?
In a private communication, Mark Derr has told me that it is more likely that the modern alano, which is a bulldog, is more likely derived not from the conquistadors’ alanos, but from bulldogs that were brought from England to Spain when Mary I and Phillip II were married– and Phillip was sort of co-monarch of England (one reason why they had a massive purge against Protestants during that reign.)
Carolina dogs likely are mixture of indigenous dogs and those of Europeans.
Also, I think the most important Spanish import to the New World in terms of dogs is the carrea leones, which is kind of like a border collie from Spain– at least some of them are. But others look like the merle cur breeds.
I think these are the Spanish dogs that we should be looking at.
I don’t think mastiffs can live on their own in the subtropics. Their shortened muzzles, which do give them some biting power, are disastrous in the subtropics. A feral mastiff would have a hard time bringing down enough prey to survive, especially if it overheats. Think of these dogs as dogs that are trying to evolve a big cat body. Big cats don’t have much endurance, but they do have strength. Cats ambush their prey. Dogs do not.
You’d have to have feral mastiffs living in the South for these dogs to have made much of impact. There was just too big of a gap in time between when the Spanish were driven out and the English moved in.
Yes, I would agree with you. Even I am very surprized to find these dogs. It is like viewing dinosours, as the Alano is said by many modern so-called experts to be extinct. First, though, we must consider, the APBT itself is a decendant of the Alaunt?Alano.
i have seen African “Rock Art” paintings dated some 6000BC, depicting the hunting of wild cattle with Sighthounds. (Few Mastiff fanciers accept the fact that Sighthounds are the ancient Big Game Hunters) I have also seen African “Rock Art” of some 4000BC depicting dogs working with domesticated cattle. The nomadic hunter becomes the nomadi shepherd. I was searching this reference after reading this…
“The French professor Pierre Megnin, in 1896, a trifle simplistically, defined four basic canine structures: lupoides (e.g. the spitz breeds), braccoides (e.g. the scenthound family), graioides (e.g. the sighthound family) and molossoides (e.g. mountain dogs, ‘fighting dogs’, mastiff breeds and even the Pugs)….At that time Megnin was unaware of the Sumerian hounds or pre-dynastic dogs…Felice Casarino believes that some of the Saharan graffiti showing heavy-skulled dogs could be from the ‘grande fauna selvaggia’ phase, ante-dating the Sumerians. John Gallent, President of the Africanis Society in South Africa, who pointed this out to me, shares my belief that an update of Megnin’s classification is long overdue.”
Hanc0ck
We, at the OWEPS, are also in full agreement, as Megnin’s classification fails to seperate the ancient head type found in our Bulldogs used to guard farms as the Shepherd’s Mastff type that are in the range of the Sumerian hounds, as seen in the breed the Kuvasz of Hungry (a LGD of cattle) and the White Kazbegi Shepherd Dog of the Caucasus (still used on cattle drives) as this head type defines the Alaunt/Alano of France and Spain brought during the Conquests of the Americas, as well as the English stock brought during the Mission Period.
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