Dogs Man’s Best Friend Twice Over

Dogs have long been one of the most helpful domesticated animals, providing companionship and service for thousands of years. Scientists have long debated whether dogs were domesticated in Europe or Asia. New findings suggest about the animals that the answer is both.

Recent research indicates that dogs were domesticated independently by residents of Europe and Asia thousands of years ago. Findings documented in research journals and other publications by scientists who analyzed the genetics of hundreds of dogs suggest that canines were domesticated twice, once in Asia and once in the vicinity of Europe. The line of dogs domesticated in Europe appears to have died out. Researchers from the University of Oxford contributed to the project.

The Newgrange Dog

A key specimen helped scientists reach this conclusion: the inner ear bone of a dog found on the east coast of Ireland. The bone is 5,000 years old and was found at Newgrange, a large earthen mound. Researchers sequenced the nuclear genome of the specimen, and then compared it to the genes of more than 600 dogs from around the globe. The sequencing revealed big differences between the specimen and other dogs.

Some key findings concerning the Newgrange dog include:

• The dog was male.
• It was not able to process starch as well as modern dogs, but was more adept at processing it than wolves.
• The dog did not possess genetic variants associated with the coat length or coat color of modern dogs.
• The dog exhibited traits suggesting an ancestry not found in modern dogs.

Researchers now believe that modern dogs descend from canines domesticated in Asia more than 10,000 years ago. The European strain of domesticated dogs are believed to have hit a genetic bottleneck a few thousand years ago and died out. Researchers believe that the Asian strain of domesticated dogs supplanted the European variety as these dogs came west along with humans migrating to the area. Dogs originally branched off from wolves more than 20,000 years ago.

Documenting Scientific Work

While technology has given scientists an ever expanding selection of tools to use in researching and recording their findings, the lab notebook remains a constant in the profession. Professional lab notebooks provide researchers with a quick and easy way to jot down findings and document their progress as they work.

Laboratory notebooks remain extremely important in patent rights and intellectual property cases, as they often provide critical evidence about the development of new ideas. Often lab notes that are decades old prove the deciding factor in these lawsuits, thanks to the meticulous documentation performed by researchers.

While dog’s are man’s best friend, the trusty and reliable lab notebook remains the constant companion of dedicated scientists and researchers around the world.

SNCO is a trusted provider of laboratory notebooks, engineering notebooks, and other products aimed at helping scientists document their work so tomorrow’s researchers can broaden the expanse of human knowledge even more.  To learn more about SNCO scientific notebooks, call 1-(800)-537-3028.