DNA confirms ancient Asian origin for American dogs

[Surya Gayatri]

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-23226796

"Research has challenged the idea that dogs already present in the Americas when Europeans arrived were swamped by animals brought in by the settlers.

The genetic study suggests modern breeds from the Americas largely trace their ancestry to dogs brought to the continent from Asia by native peoples.

It establishes a native Mexican origin for the popular Chihuahua - proposed by some to have recent roots in China."

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-23226796

[Igel]

1. Confusing article.

"Dogs" can mean "some dogs" or "most dogs" or "the typical dog".

They mean specific breeds. "Some dogs." But not just a random sample.

The most common understanding of a bare generic noun is "most dogs" or "the typical dog."

It's not the researchers. It's the "wordsmiths" who, presumably, at some point actually were told they were expected to have a good functional use of English. However, they'd gotten thoroughly pissed the night before, got pissed after they were told of this minor expectation, and it's all a kind of blur to them now.

Then again, when you write things like "brought to the continent from Asia by native peoples" with the clear understanding that it was the native peoples of the Americas that brought them here, it rather sounds like the "indigenous immigrants" had some sort of import deal with Asia. Not that either the dogs were brought over with Asian migrants or that the dogs spread through contact. I assume the mDNA time-depth is given in the original article.

[byeya]

2. It is confusing but one thing that has been established is that dogs are wolves.

Not coyotes, foxes, or other canids.

It is interesting to me that the oldest skeletons in the New World, the ones that share more affinities with the Ainu than with the presumed ancestors of American Indians, have not been found with dogs associated with them. Of course there are very few of these skeletons but they range throughout the Americas. Maybe it's just a matter of the right discovery.