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Posted by: 90sRetroFan
« on: October 31, 2020, 01:11:27 am »

https://science.sciencemag.org/content/370/6516/557

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Expansions of steppe pastoralists associated with the Yamnaya and Corded Ware cultures into Late Neolithic and Bronze Age Europe transformed the ancestry of human populations (43, 45, 46). To test whether dog ancestry was similarly affected, we analyzed a 3.8-ka-old dog from the eastern European steppe associated with the Bronze Age Srubnaya culture. Although its ancestry resembles that of western European dogs (Fig. 1C and fig. S10), it is an outlier in the center of PC1–PC2 space (Fig. 1B). A Corded Ware–associated dog (4.7 ka ago) from Germany, hypothesized to have steppe ancestry (14), can be modeled as deriving 51% of its ancestry from a source related to the Srubnaya steppe dog and the rest from a Neolithic European source (data file S1) (30). We obtain similar results for a Bronze Age Swedish dog (45%; 3.1 ka ago), but not a Bronze Age Italian dog (4 ka ago).

Despite this potential link between the steppe and the Corded Ware dog, most later European dogs display no particular affinity to the Srubnaya dog. Modern European dogs instead cluster with Neolithic European dogs (Fig. 1B) and do not mirror the lasting ancestry shift seen in humans after the pastoralist expansion (Fig. 3A). Earlier and additional steppe dog genomes are needed to better understand this process, but the relative continuity between Neolithic and present-day individuals suggests that the arrival of steppe pastoralists did not result in persistent large-scale shifts in the ancestry of European dogs.

Dogs >>>>>>>>>>>> Homo Hubris

Posted by: 90sRetroFan
« on: October 31, 2020, 12:51:55 am »

OLD CONTENT

www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2019/02/190214153031.htm

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This is the conclusion of a research study led by Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona (UAB) and the University of Barcelona (UB), which provides new data to describe and understand the presence of dogs in sacred and funerary spaces of the middle Neolithic in the Iberian Peninsula, and gets an insight on the relation between humans and these animals. The study has been published in the Journal of Archaeological Science: Reports.

The study analyses the remains of twenty-six dogs found in funerary structures from four sites and necropolises of the Barcelona region, and has conducted an isotopic analysis for eighteen of them, to determine whether the relation with their owners included other aspects, such as a control of their diet.
...
The isotopic study of the remains and its comparison with humans' and other herbivorous animals' diet in the site shows the diet of most of these animals was similar to the diet of humans, with a high presence of cereal, such as corn, and vegetables. In two puppies and two adult dogs, nutrition was mainly vegetarian and only a few cases had a diet rich in animal protein.

"These data show a close coexistence between dogs and humans, and probably, a specific preparation of their nutrition, which is clear in the cases of a diet based on vegetables. They would probably do so to obtain a better control of their tasks on security and to save the time they would have to spend looking for food. This management would explain the homogeneity of the size of the animals," says Eulàlia Subirà, researcher in the Research Group on Biological Anthropology (GREAB) of UAB.
...
Regarding food, there are only a few studies, with some cases of mixed diets in France, Anatolia and China. "Recently, we saw dogs have ten genes with a key function for starch and fat digestion, which would make the carbohydrates assimilation more efficient than its ancestor's, the wolf. Our study helps reaching the conclusion that during the Neolithic, several vegetables were introduced to their nutrition," notes Eulàlia Subirà.

Contrast with dogs used (for much longer) as hunting assistants by Gentiles and (for somewhat less long) herding assistants by Turanians, hence who would have had a meat-heavy diet.

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www.plantbasednews.org/opinion/have-humans-evolved-carnivores-herbivores

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Geochemical analysis of grains and pulses from Neolithic sites confirms that, like their predecessors, early farmers relied much more heavily on plant protein than previously thought.

Relatively recent genetic changes that helped include the increased production of amylase, an enzyme in our saliva that helps us digest the starchy carbohydrates found in bread, rice, and other wholegrains.

Interestingly, domesticated dogs produce much more amylase than wolves from whom they evolved – not in their saliva but from their pancreases – allowing them, too, to thrive on starch-rich diets.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MG9XVMK0L1Y

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www.discovermagazine.com/planet-earth/dogs-accompanied-the-first-farmers-to-europe

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Farm Dog, Meet Forager Dog

Agriculture arose about 11,000 years ago in the Fertile Crescent in a region that today includes Iran and Iraq. Hundreds of years later, farmers from that region migrated to Anatolia, or the Asian part of Turkey. From there, many of them headed north into southeastern Europe.

Tagging along on this epic migration were dogs originally bred in the Near East. The scientists learned this by analyzing mitochondrial DNA sequences from 99 ancient European and Near Eastern dog remains spanning from the beginnings of dog domestication to about 3,500 years ago. They discovered that the farm dogs in southeastern Europe possessed mitochondrial haplogroup D — found in canines in the Near East, but not in dogs originating in Europe.

Before the farmers started arriving in southeast Europe about 8,200 years ago, the mountains, rivers and valleys in that region were occupied only by hunter-gatherers. The hunter-gatherers had dogs as well, but, according to the researchers, their animals possessed mitochondrial haplogroup C, which is not found in Near East dogs. That means the farmers’ and foragers’ dogs were part of two different groups, says Ollivier.

Other than interaction along the Danube River between Romania and Serbia, a region known today as the Iron Gates, the hunter-gatherers and first farmers in southeast and central Europe rarely met, says Joachim Burger, an archaeologist at Mainz University in Germany who was not part of the study.

That changed by about 7,000 years ago, he says, when DNA evidence reveals the groups were mixing to the extent of mating and raising families.

Meanwhile, the farm dogs were replacing the forager dogs in Europe. The haplogroup C animals, those with European roots, decrease, while haplogroup D dogs, with Near Eastern roots, increase, say Ollivier.

Ollivier and her co-lead author of the paper, Anne Tresset, director of the National Center for Scientific Research in France, are continuing to study the early European farm dogs. They are discovering that, like people, the animals adapted to an agriculture diet, which might include cereals, peas and lentils.

Ollivier sees this as further evidence of the human and canine connection. “Dog history reflects human history,” she says.

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www.nature.com/articles/hdy201648

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Adaptations allowing dogs to thrive on a diet rich in starch, including a significant AMY2B copy number gain, constituted a crucial step in the evolution of the dog from the wolf. It is however not clear whether this change was associated with the initial domestication, or represents a secondary shift related to the subsequent development of agriculture. Previous efforts to study this process were based on geographically limited data sets and low-resolution methods, and it is therefore not known to what extent the diet adaptations are universal among dogs and whether there are regional differences associated with alternative human subsistence strategies. Here we use droplet PCR to investigate worldwide AMY2B copy number diversity among indigenous as well as breed dogs and wolves to elucidate how a change in dog diet was associated with the domestication process and subsequent shifts in human subsistence. We find that AMY2B copy numbers are bimodally distributed with high copy numbers (median 2nAMY2B=11) in a majority of dogs but no, or few, duplications (median 2nAMY2B=3) in a small group of dogs originating mostly in Australia and the Arctic. We show that this pattern correlates geographically to the spread of prehistoric agriculture and conclude that the diet change may not have been associated with initial domestication but rather the subsequent development and spread of agriculture to most, but not all regions of the globe.

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www.ancient-origins.net/news-history-archaeology/neolithic-chinese-0013698

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Researchers in China have found evidence that Stone Age people had a close relationship with hares. While they never domesticated them as they did with dogs, it appears that humans changed the behaviors of these small mammals. The reasons for prehistoric human interaction with hares may be a result of cultural and religious beliefs, and this is allowing us to understand the world of Neolithic Chinese people.
...
Based on the levels of isotopes, they found that they mostly ate wild plants. However, it appears that the hares also consumed millet in large quantities over a long period, on average 20% of their diet consisted of this cereal.
...
Antiquity reports that “human influence on ecological niches can drive rapid changes in the diet, behavior and evolutionary trajectories of small mammals.” The research team’s analysis revealed that the hares’ diet was at least supplemented by human agriculture produce. This suggests a commensal relationship, between hares and humans.

Antiquity states that this involved “animals benefiting from a relationship with humans, which neither benefits nor harms the latter.” This probably influenced the behavior of the hares, and they found a niche for themselves in the new environment created by the growing of millet in the area.
...
The latest research from China indicates the hares began to gather around farming communities for food, and this led to the development of a symbiotic relationship.

The results from one hare were of special interest to the team. The isotope analysis found that the hare had consumed a great deal of millet. Its diet was similar to a domesticated pig from the period. While many hares were hunted at this time, this mammal was fed and possibly protected by the local humans. The research team leader, Pengfei Sheng from Fudan University, stated according to an Antiquity Press Statement , “we found a pet-like human-hare relationship beyond the hunter and the hunted in Neolithic China.”

We were protecting the hares (and pigs too!) from the Gentiles who hunted them.

Speaking of pigs, some etymology: