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Early European dogs shared ancestry with later dogs worldwide

Two fossilized dog skulls photographed against a black background, showing detailed bone structure and anatomical features of ancient canine specimens.
Research area:Life SciencesGeneticsDomestication

What the study found

The study found that the oldest dog genome recovered, from a 14,200-year-old dog at Kesslerloch in Switzerland, shares ancestry with later dogs worldwide. It also found that this early dog is genetically closer to Mesolithic, Neolithic, and present-day European dogs than to Asian dogs.

Why the authors say this matters

The authors say these findings are inconsistent with the idea that European Upper Palaeolithic dogs came entirely from a separate domestication process. They also suggest that Mesolithic dogs likely contributed substantially to later Neolithic and probably modern European dogs, after Southwest Asian ancestry entered Europe in the Neolithic.

What the researchers tested

The researchers analysed 216 canid remains, including 181 from Palaeolithic and Mesolithic Europe. They developed a genome-wide capture approach that enriched endogenous DNA by 10-100-fold and used it to distinguish dog from wolf ancestry in 141 of the 216 remains.

What worked and what didn't

The approach recovered genome-wide data from ancient canid remains and identified the 14,200-year-old Kesslerloch dog as the oldest dog data in the study. The team found a Neolithic influx of Southwest Asian ancestry into Europe, but it appears to have been smaller in dogs than in humans.

What to keep in mind

The abstract does not provide detailed limitations beyond the available sample and the fact that the conclusions are based on the remains that could be genetically classified. It also does not describe every step of the analysis in detail.

Key points

  • The oldest dog genome recovered in the study came from a 14,200-year-old dog in Switzerland.
  • That dog shared ancestry with later dogs worldwide.
  • The early dog was closer to later European dogs than to Asian dogs.
  • The study analyzed 216 canid remains and classified dog versus wolf ancestry in 141 of them.
  • The authors report a Neolithic influx of Southwest Asian ancestry into Europe that was smaller in dogs than in humans.

Disclosure

Research title:
Early European dogs shared ancestry with later dogs worldwide
Authors:
Anders Bergström, Anja Furtwängler, Sarah Johnston, Erika Rosengren, Abagail Breidenstein, Thomas Booth, Jesse B. McCabe, Jessica Peto, Mia Williams, Monica Kelly, Frankie Tait, Chris Baumann, Rita Radzevičiūtė, Christopher Barrington, Kyriaki Anastasiadou, Alexandre Gilardet, Isabelle Glocke, Mattias Sherman, Anastasia Brativnyk, Alexander Herbig, Kay Prüfer, Saskia Pfrengle, Joscha Gretzinger, Tatiana R. Feuerborn, Ella Reiter, Anna Linderholm, Sophy Charlton, Fernando Racimo, Lea Mikkola, Hugo Anderson-Whymark, Douglas Baird, Anne Birgitte Gotfredsen, Hervé Bocherens, Anne Bridault, Rainer Brocke, Dorothée G. Drucker, Andrew Fairbairn, Laurent Frantz, Boris Gasparyan, Liane Giemsch, Mietje Germonpré, Luc Janssens, Andrew W. Kandel, Kurt Kjær, Martina Lázničková-Galetová, Daniel Loponte, Ola Magnell, Louise Martin, Susanne C. Münzel, Gökhan Mustafaoğlu, Bjørnar Måge, Angela Perri, Franziska Pfenninger, Martina Roblíčková, Annelise Roman-Binois, Özlem Sarıtaş, Katharina Schäppi, J. Alison Sheridan, Karl-Göran Sjögren, Jan Storå, Lasse Sørensen, Yvonne Tafelmaier, Florian Ter-Nedden, Olaf Thalmann, Greger Larson, Verena J. Schuenemann, Johannes Krause, Pontus Skoglund
Institutions:
University of East Anglia, The Francis Crick Institute, Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology, Genomics (United Kingdom), Lund University, National Historical Museums, Centre for Palaeogenetics, Binghamton University, University of Zurich, University of Exeter, University of Reading, Senckenberg Centre for Human Evolution and Palaeoenvironment, University of Tübingen, University College London, University of Copenhagen, Stockholm University, University of Oxford, Oxford Archaeology, University of York, University of Turku, Turku Centre for Biotechnology, National Museums Scotland, University of Liverpool, Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique, Archéologies et Sciences de l’Antiquité, Senckenberg Research Institute and Natural History Museum Frankfurt/M, The University of Queensland, Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität München, Yerevan State University, Institute of Archaeology and Ethnography, National Academy of Sciences of Armenia, Jewish Museum, Frankfurt Zoological Society, Institute of Natural Sciences, Ghent University, Heidelberg Academy of Sciences and Humanities, Moravian Museum, Structure et Instabilité des Génomes, Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas, Ankara Hacı Bayram Veli University, Sjællands Universitetshospital, Nykøbing F., Kantonsarchäologie, Kantonsschule Schaffhausen, Université Paris 1 Panthéon-Sorbonne, Hitit Üniversitesi, British Institute at Ankara, University of Gothenburg, Studi, National Museum of Denmark, State Administration of Cultural Heritage, Museum zu Allerheiligen, University of Vienna, University of Basel
Publication date:
2026-03-25
DOI:
10.1038/s41586-026-10112-7
OpenAlex record:
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AI provenance: This post was generated by OpenAI. The original authors did not write or review this post.

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