African village dog

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An African Village Dog found in Port Harcourt, Rivers, Nigeria Choba African Village Dog.jpg
An African Village Dog found in Port Harcourt, Rivers, Nigeria

African village dogs are dogs found in Africa that are directly descended from an ancestral pool of indigenous dogs. [1] African village dogs became the close companion of people in Africa, beginning in North Africa and spreading south. [2]

Contents

Dogs entered Africa from the Middle East

The oldest dog remains to be found in Africa date 5,900 years before present (YBP) and were discovered at the Merimde Beni-Salame Neolithic site in the Nile Delta, Egypt. The next oldest remains date 5,500 YBP and were found at Esh Shareinab on the Nile in Sudan. This suggests that the dog arrived from Asia at the same time as domestic sheep and goats. [3] The dog then spread north and south throughout Africa beside livestock herders, with remains found in archaeological sites dated 925–1,055 YBP at Ntusi in Uganda, dated 950–1,000 YBP at Kalomo in Zambia, and then at sites south of the Limpopo River and into southern Africa. [4]

Genetic diversity

In 2009, a genetic study of African village dogs found that these were genetically distinct from the non-native and mixed-breed dogs. The village dogs of Africa were a mosaic of native dogs that arrived early into Africa, and non-native mixed breed dogs. The Basenji clustered with the indigenous dogs, but the Pharaoh Hound and the Rhodesian Ridgeback were predominantly of non-African origin. [5]

Local variations

There are different types of African village dogs:

Moreover, it is debatable whether the following breeds also belong or belonged to "African village dogs".[ citation needed ]

See also

Related Research Articles

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<span class="mw-page-title-main">Miniature Pinscher</span> Dog breed

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References

  1. "African Village Dogs Are Genetically Much More Diverse Than Modern Breeds". ScienceDaily. 6 August 2009. Retrieved 6 May 2013.
  2. Simpson, Professor MA (8 January 2013). "Dogs do come from Africa". health24. 24.com. Retrieved 13 May 2013.
  3. Wendorf, Fred (2001). Holocene settlement of the Egyptian Sahara. Volume 1, The archaeology of Nabta Playa. Romuald Schild. New York. ISBN   978-1-4615-0653-9. OCLC   885402023.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link)
  4. Clutton, Juliet; Driscoll, Carlos A. (2016). "1-Origins of the dog:The archaeological evidence". In James Serpell (ed.). The Domestic Dog: Its Evolution, Behavior and Interactions with People (2 ed.). Cambridge University Press. p. 17. ISBN   978-1-107-02414-4.
  5. Boyko, Adam; Boykob, Ryan H.; Boykob, Corin M.; Parkerc, Heidi G.; Castelhanod, Marta; Corey, L.; Degenhardt, J. D.; Auton, A.; Hedimbi, M.; Kityo, R.; Ostrander, E. A.; Schoenebeck, J.; Todhunter, R. J.; Jones, P.; Bustamante, C. D. (2009-08-18). "Complex population structure in African village dogs and its implications for inferring dog domestication history". PNAS. 106 (33): 13903–13908. Bibcode:2009PNAS..10613903B. doi: 10.1073/pnas.0902129106 . PMC   2728993 . PMID   19666600.
  6. Avuvis. West African Dogs, Blogspot.com. Searched Feb 25th, 2019.
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