The study, the findings of which were published in the science journal Cell Research, found that Chinese indigenous¹ dogs represent an intermediate form between wolves and breed dogs, and that they have not experienced intense artificial selection.

 

"Analyses of Chinese indigenous dogs therefore allow us to stratify the domestication² process in dogs, and investigate the role of positive selection that occurred specifically during the first stage of domestication," said the report.

 

The researchers also found that the southern Chinese indigenous dogs together with several East Asian dogs, such as the Chow or Shar Pei, are closest to wolves.

 

The history of dog domestication is often depicted³ as a two-stage process where primitive⁴ dogs were first domesticated⁵ from their wild ancestors, the gray wolves. In the second stage, the primitive forms were further selected to form many dog breeds with specialized⁶ abilities.

 

The researchers collected the genome sequences of 58 canids from across the world, including samples from Europe, Africa, southern and northern parts of East Asia, the Middle East, Siberia and the Americas. They found that after evolving for several thousand years in East Asia, a subgroup of dogs radiated out of southern East Asia about 15,000 years ago to the Middle East, Africa and Europe.

 

"One of these out of Asia lineages then migrated back to northern China and made a series of admixtures with endemic East Asian lineages, before traveling to the Americas," said the researchers. "Our study, for the first time, reveals the extraordinary journey that the domestic dog has traveled on this planet during the past 33,000 years."

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