Scientists determine dog's place and date of birth

Washington, September 2 (ANI): The place and the point in time when dogs first emerged have been identified, claim researchers at the Royal Institute of Technology (KTH) in Stockholm, Sweden.

"For the first time in history it is now possible to provide a detailed picture of the dog including birthplace, point in time and the number of wolves that were tamed," says Peter Savolainen, a biology researcher at KTH.

Working with Swedish and Chinese collaborators, he has made a number of new discoveries concerning the history of man's best friend.

He has established that the dog arrived 16 000 years ago in Asia, south of the Yangtze River in China.

"Our previous discoveries from 2002 have not been fully accepted; however with this new data acceptance will probably be greater. The picture is much more detailed," Peter says.

He says that the point in time when the dog emerged is well in line with the point when the population of this part of the world changed from hunting and gathering to farming as a way of life-10 000 to 12 000 years ago.

According to Peter, this research indicates that the dog has only one geographical origin, but is descended from a large number of animals.

"Considering that it involved so many wolves, this indicates that this event was important and a major part of the culture," he says.

The research result comes from genetical analysis of mitochondrial DNA from 1 500 dogs, from all over the earth.

An article highlighting the findings has been published in the scientific journal Molecular Biology and Evolution. (ANI)