The first humans in America went with dogs

All the evidence found to date indicates that the human being does not originate from the American continentbut the dispersion of the species brought the first men there a few 15,000 years. It was at that time that our ancestors crossed over from Siberia via beringia (the isthmus that is currently occupied by the Bering Strait). And, according to new research, they didn’t do it alone: they were accompanied by their domesticated dogs.

An international team of researchers led by archaeologist Angela Perryof the University of Durham (UK) has reached this conclusion by examining ancient archaeological and genetic records of people and dogs of the time that present evidence of Northeast Asian ancestry.

The researchers note that this discovery indicates that the domestication of dogs probably first took place in Siberia 23,000 years ago or more and that afterward the men, along with their canine companions, traveled west on their way to the rest of eurasia and towards the east directed to the new continent.

“When and where did the domestication of dogs arise has been a recurring question, but we have also looked at the how and why”points out Perri, who has just published his results in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America (PNAS). “That the domestication of dogs occurred in Siberia answers many of the questions we have always asked ourselves about the origins of the relationship between humans and dogs”.

The Origins of Dog Domestication: Asia or Europe?

The American continent was one of the last regions of the world to be populated by people. Previous studies suggest that long before this time, humans had already domesticated some Wolvesand that this species already played different roles within ancient human societies.

The dominant scientific current locates the origin of relationship between humans and dogs sometime between 15,000 and 40,000 years ago in Asia or Europeand describes it as a gradual process that took hundreds or even thousands of years, since the wolves approached the remains left by humans and, finally, they will end up eating from your hand.

«The only thing we knew for sure was that the domestication of dogs did not take place in America.”Explain Laurent Franzgeneticist at Ludwig Maximilian University (Munich) and co-author of the study. “From the genetic signatures of ancient dogs, we now know that they must have been present somewhere in Siberia before people migrated to America.”.

For its part, Greg Larsonprofessor at the University of Oxford, and another of the authors of the study, points out: “Researchers have previously suggested that dogs were domesticated in Eurasia, from Europe to China, and many places in between. But new evidence now points to Siberia and northeast Asia as the region where dog domestication likely began.”.

A possible reconstruction of the facts

The theory of Perri and his colleagues is as follows: during the Last Glacial Maximum (approximately 23,000 to 19,000 years ago) Beringia, the land bridge between Canada and Russia, and most of Siberia were extremely cold, but dry places without glaciers. The harsh climatic conditions may have been key to the rapprochement between humans and wolves, since they hunted the same type of prey.

Little by little, the interactions grew: the canids began to approach the human camps and eat the leftovers. Eventually, people began to feed the wolves, until the more docile packs were domesticated as dogs, helping them with tasks such as self-care. hunt.

“We have long known that early Americans had highly sophisticated hunting skills and knew how to find stones and other materials to make their tools”it states David Meltzerarchaeologist at Southern Methodist University (USA) and author of the article. “The dogs that accompanied them into this whole new world may well have been part of their culture, on the same level as the stone tools they brought with them.”.

Since their domestication from wolves, dogs have played a wide variety of roles in human societies, some linked to the history of cultures around the world.

“Future archaeological and genetic research will reveal how the mutual and emergent relationship between humans and dogs ultimately led to their successful dispersal throughout the world.”, the researchers point out. In other words, we may owe more than we thought to those wolves that ended up being domesticated thousands of years ago.

Font: P. Biosca / ABC

Reference article: https://www.abc.es/ciencia/abci-dogs-conquered-continent-american-together-men-202101251707_noticia.html#ancla_comentarios