DNA From a 33,000-Year-Old Canine Resembles Modern Dog DNA

MOSCOW, RUSSIA—A DNA sample taken from a 33,000-year-old canine skull found in Siberia’s Altai Mountains suggests that the creature was more closely related to modern dogs than to wolves. The skull resembles that of a domestic dog, although the split from wolves had probably been recent, and it is 15,000 years older than evidence of domesticated dogs from the Middle East and East Asia. “Additional discoveries of ancient doglike remains are essential for further narrowing the time and region of origin for the domestic dog,” reported the team of researchers from the Russian Academy of Sciences.