Dogs arrived in North America 10,000 years ago with the first humans, according to a new study.

Scientists have uncovered the earliest remnants of a domestic dog in the Americas, dating back over 10,000 years, implying that dogs accompanied the earliest waves of human migrants.

Humans are thought to have migrated to North America from Siberia at the conclusion of the last Ice Age, between 30,000 and 11,000 years ago, over what is now the Bering Strait. Canine DNA can provide a decent timeline for human colonisation because their history has been connected with man since prehistoric times. The mitochondrial DNA of a bone fragment discovered in Southeast Alaska was examined in a recent study performed by the University of Buffalo.

Initially, the scientists assumed the fragment belonged to a bear. However, a deeper look revealed it to be a femur from a dog that lived in the area around 10,150 years ago and had a genetic genealogy with American canines that lived before the advent of European breeds because dogs are a proxy for human occupancy, our data assist establish not only a timing but also a place for the introduction of dogs and people into America.

Southeast Alaska might have acted as an ice-free stopover, and now that we have a dog, we believe that early human migration through the region was far more important than previously thought.

MIGRATIONS FROM AN EARLIER PERIOD

An examination of the carbon isotopes in the bone piece revealed that the ancient Southeast Alaskan dog most likely ate fish, seal, and whale scraps.
Dogs did not all appear in North America at the same time. Some came later with the Thule people from East Asia, while Siberian huskies were brought to Alaska during the Gold Rush in the nineteenth century.

The question of whether the first humans arrived in North America through a continental corridor established when the ice sheets receded or along the North Pacific coast thousands of years ago has long been debated.

Dog remains had previously been dated as being younger than the piece. Dogs may have arrived on the continent during subsequent continental migrations, according to this theory. Some evidence suggested that dogs did indeed arrive in North America with the first waves of human migrants.

We also have evidence that the ice sheet’s coastline border began melting around 17,000 years ago, but the inland route did not become feasible until around 13,000 years ago. And genetic data suggests that the first Americans travelled down the coast around 16,000 years ago. According to research, our coastal dog is a descendent of dogs who took part in the first migration.

Final Note:

Canine DNA can provide a decent timeline for human colonisation because their history has been connected with man since prehistoric times.