News release

From: Springer Nature

Palaeontology: Genetics reveals history of the earliest dogs in Europe

Domesticated dogs were already widely distributed in western Eurasia at least 14,200 years ago, according to two studies published in Nature. The papers report the oldest known dog genomes to date, earlier than the previous genetic record of around 10,900 years ago. The findings also reveal that a genetically similar dog population had spread widely across western Eurasia by this time. Together, these results shed light on the early history of dogs in Europe.

Dogs were the only domesticated animals present in Europe before agriculture, but the exact timing of their origin remains unclear. Archaeological evidence suggests that dogs diverged from wolves during the Palaeolithic, over 15,000 years ago, and the earliest recognizable dog remains in Europe date to at least 14,000 years ago. However, without genome‑wide data, the origins of these early European dogs were difficult to confirm.

In the first study, Anders Bergström and colleagues analysed the genomes of 216 dog and wolf remains found in Europe and its vicinity. The oldest specimen is an early dog from the Kesslerloch site in Switzerland, which is radiocarbon‑dated to 14,200 years ago. Analysis of the genome shows that the Kesslerloch dog shared ancestry with dogs from other regions, indicating that the genetic diversification of domesticated dogs had started more than 14,200 years ago and that Palaeolithic dogs in Europe did not derive from an independent domestication process. The authors also found an influx of Southwest Asian ancestry into some Neolithic European dogs, reflecting the migration of people during the spread of farming into Europe. However, this genetic effect was smaller in dogs than in humans, suggesting that dogs from local hunter‑gatherer groups made a substantial contribution to Neolithic, and probably also modern, European dogs.

In a separate study, Laurent Frantz and colleagues examined genomes from dog remains found at Pınarbaşı in Türkiye (dating to around 15,800 years ago), Gough’s Cave in the UK (around 14,300 years ago) and two Mesolithic sites in Serbia (11,500–7,900 years ago and 8,900 years ago, respectively). The results show that domesticated dogs were already widely distributed across western Eurasia by at least 14,300 years ago. These Palaeolithic dogs were genetically similar and were members of a population that expanded across the region between 18,500 and 14,000 years ago. The remains were associated with several human hunter-gatherer populations that were genetically and culturally different, suggesting that the spread of dogs may have been linked to the migration and interaction of these groups.

Together, the studies provide strong genetic evidence for the early presence and spread of dogs in Europe. They push genetically confirmed dog presence in Europe back to the late Upper Palaeolithic (around 15,800–14,200 years ago). In addition, the studies offer new insights into how ancient human populations migrated, interacted and shared their lives with the first dogs.