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Dogs accompanied humans during the Neolithic expansion into Europe

Morgane Ollivier 1 Anne Tresset 2 Laurent a F Frantz 3, 4 Stéphanie Bréhard 2 Adrian Bălăşescu 5 Marjan Mashkour 2 Adina Boroneanţ 5 Maud Pionnier-Capitan 2 Ophélie Lebrasseur 4 Rose-Marie Arbogast 6 László Bartosiewicz Karyne Debue 2 Rivka Rabinovich 7 Mikhail V Sablin Greger Larson 4 Catherine Hänni 8 Christophe Hitte 9 Jean-Denis Vigne 2
1 Palgene - Plateforme nationale de Paléogénétique
2 AASPE - Archéozoologie, archéobotanique : sociétés, pratiques et environnements
3 QMUL - Queen Mary University of London
4 University of Oxford [Oxford]
5 Romanian Academy of Sciences
6 UMR 7044 - Etude des Civilisations de l'Antiquité
7 HUJ - The Hebrew University of Jerusalem
8 LECA - Laboratoire d'Ecologie Alpine
9 IGDR - Institut de Génétique et Développement de Rennes
Abstract : Near Eastern Neolithic farmers introduced several species of domestic plants and animals as they dispersed into Europe. Dogs were the only domestic species present in both Europe and the Near East prior to the Neolithic. Here, we assessed whether early Near Eastern dogs possessed a unique mitochondrial lineage that differentiated them from Mesolithic European populations. We then analysed mitochondrial DNA sequences from 99 ancient European and Near Eastern dogs spanning the Upper Palaeolithic to the Bronze Age to assess if incoming farmers brought Near Eastern dogs with them, or instead primarily adopted indigenous European dogs after they arrived. Our results show that European pre-Neolithic dogs all possessed the mitochondrial haplogroup C, and that the Neolithic and Post-Neolithic dogs associated with farmers from Southeastern Europe mainly possessed haplogroup D. Thus, the appearance of haplogroup D most probably resulted from the dissemination of dogs from the Near East into Europe. In Western and Northern Europe, the turnover is incomplete and haplogroup C persists well into the Chalcolithic at least. These results suggest that dogs were an integral component of the Neolithic farming package and a mitochondrial lineage associated with the Near East was introduced into Europe alongside pigs, cows, sheep and goats. It got diluted into the native dog population when reaching the Western and Northern margins of Europe.
Keywords : Neolithic domestication dog ancient DNA
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https://hal-univ-rennes1.archives-ouvertes.fr/hal-01903172
Contributor : Laurent Jonchère <>
Submitted on : Wednesday, October 24, 2018 - 10:37:56 AM
Last modification on : Wednesday, October 14, 2020 - 4:17:53 AM

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UNIV-RENNES1 | IGDR | CNRS | MNHN | LECA | ENS-LYON | BIOSIT | UR1-UFR-SVE | UNIV-SAVOIE | SITE-ALSACE | UNIV-RENNES | UGA | ECOBIO | OSUR | UDL

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Morgane Ollivier, Anne Tresset, Laurent a F Frantz, Stéphanie Bréhard, Adrian Bălăşescu, et al.. Dogs accompanied humans during the Neolithic expansion into Europe. Biology Letters, Royal Society, The, 2018, 14 (10), pp.20180286. ⟨10.1098/rsbl.2018.0286⟩. ⟨hal-01903172⟩

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