Greger Larson

Last updated

Greger John Larson is an evolutionary geneticist notable for his work on animal domestication, ancient DNA, human and animal dispersal, and phylogenetics. [1] He is a professor in the School of Archaeology, University of Oxford, and Director of the Wellcome Trust Palaeogenomics and Bio-Archaeology Research Network.

Contents

Education

Larson obtained a Bachelor of Arts (BA) degree in environment, economics and politics from Claremont McKenna College in California where he was a varsity tennis player using an unconventional 'windshield wiper' forehand style with great success. During college he acted as a resident assistant for Wohlford Hall and mentored numerous students. After college, he completed a Doctor of Philosophy (DPhil) in zoology at the University of Oxford, where his supervisor was Alan J. Cooper. [2] His doctoral thesis was titled "Genetic insights into the patterns and processes of domestication" and was completed in 2006. [3]

Academic career

After his PhD at the University of Oxford, Larson completed an EMBO Postdoctoral Fellowship in Uppsala, Sweden and a further six-year RCUK Fellowship at Durham University. [2]

Larson is a professor in the School of Archaeology at the University of Oxford and Director of the Wellcome Trust Palaeogenomics and Bio-Archaeology Research Network (PaleoBARN). [4] Larson is also part of the BioAnth research network at the University of Oxford. [5]

He is the recipient of numerous research awards from major funding bodies including the Wellcome Trust and UKRI. [6]

Research

His work on the domestication of canines and the origin of the domestic dog has provided insights into the prehistoric bond between humans and early dogs. [7] [8] [9]

A global study of ancient dog DNA, conducted in collaboration with the Francis Crick Institute, the University of Vienna, and the University of Oxford has highlighted unique aspects of the relationship between humans and canines: 'Dogs are our oldest and closest animal partner. Using DNA from ancient dogs is showing us just how far back our shared history goes and will ultimately help us understand when and where this deep relationship began.' [10] Larson's original research is widely published in high impact journals including Science and Nature, [2] as well as featuring in popular magazines and periodicals including The Atlantic and the New York Times. [11] [12] [13]

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Canidae</span> Family of mammals

Canidae is a biological family of dog-like carnivorans, colloquially referred to as dogs, and constitutes a clade. A member of this family is also called a canid. The family includes three subfamilies: the extant Caninae and the extinct Borophaginae and Hesperocyoninae. The Caninae are known as canines, and include domestic dogs, wolves, coyotes, foxes, jackals and other extant and extinct species.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Zooarchaeology</span> Archaeological sub-discipline

Zooarchaeology, also known as faunal analysis, is a branch of archaeology that studies remains of animals from archaeological sites. Faunal remains are the items left behind when an animal dies. These include bones, shells, hair, chitin, scales, hides, proteins and DNA. Of these items, bones and shells are the ones that occur most frequently at archaeological sites where faunal remains can be found. Most of the time, a majority of these faunal remains do not survive. They often decompose or break because of various circumstances. This can cause difficulties in identifying the remains and interpreting their significance.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Dog breed</span> Group of closely related and visibly similar domestic dogs

A dog breed is a particular type of dog that was purposefully bred by humans to perform specific tasks, such as herding, hunting, and guarding. Dogs are the most variable mammal on Earth, with artificial selection producing around 450 globally recognized breeds. These breeds possess distinct traits related to morphology, which include body size, skull shape, tail phenotype, fur type, body shape, and coat colour. Their behavioral traits include guarding, herding, and hunting, and personality traits such as hyper-social behavior, boldness, and aggression. Most breeds were derived from small numbers of founders within the last 200 years. As a result, today dogs are the most abundant carnivore species and are dispersed around the world.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Domestication</span> Selective breeding of plants and animals to serve humans

Domestication is a multi-generational relationship between humans and other organisms, where humans take control over their reproduction and care to have a steady supply of the organisms' resources. It can be argued that domestication is a form of mutualism, where both humans and the organisms are benefited. The domestication of plants and animals by humans was a major cultural innovation ranked in importance with the conquest of fire, the manufacturing of tools, and the development of verbal language.

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

The Xoloitzcuintle is one of several breeds of hairless dog. It is found in standard, intermediate, and miniature sizes. The Xolo also comes in a coated variety, totally covered in fur. Coated and hairless can be born in the same litter as a result of the same combination of genes. The hairless variant is known as the Perro pelón mexicano or Mexican hairless dog. It is characterized by its duality, wrinkles, and dental abnormalities, along with a primitive temper. In Nahuatl, from which its name originates, it is xōlōitzcuintli[ʃoːloːit͡sˈkʷint͡ɬi] (singular) and xōlōitzcuintin[ʃoːloːit͡sˈkʷintin] (plural). The name comes from the god Xolotl that, according to ancient narratives, is its creator and itzcuīntli[it͡sˈkʷiːnt͡ɬi], meaning 'dog' in the Nahuatl language.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Dog breeding</span> Mating selected dogs for specific qualities

Dog breeding is the practice of mating selected dogs with the intention of maintaining or producing specific qualities and characteristics. When dogs reproduce without such human intervention, their offspring's characteristics are determined by natural selection, while "dog breeding" refers specifically to the artificial selection of dogs, in which dogs are intentionally bred by their owners. Breeding relies on the science of genetics, hence a breeder who is knowledgeable on canine genetics, health, and the intended purpose of the dogs attempts to breed suitable dogs.

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

A wolfdog is a canine produced by the mating of a domestic dog with a gray wolf, eastern wolf, red wolf, or Ethiopian wolf to produce a hybrid.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Doghouse</span>

A doghouse, also known as a kennel, is an outbuilding to provide shelter for a dog from various weather conditions.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">New Guinea singing dog</span> Dog breed

The New Guinea singing dog or New Guinea Highland dog is an ancient (basal) lineage of dog found in the New Guinea Highlands, on the island of New Guinea. Once considered to be a separate species in its own right, under the name Canis hallstromi, it is closely related to the Australian dingo. The dog is unique among canines, as it is one of the few to be considered "barkless", and known for its unusual "yodel"-like style of vocalizing.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Domesticated silver fox</span> Type of fox

The domesticated silver fox is a form of the silver fox that has been to some extent domesticated under laboratory conditions. The silver fox is a melanistic form of the wild red fox. Domesticated silver foxes are the result of an experiment designed to demonstrate the power of selective breeding to transform species, as described by Charles Darwin in On the Origin of Species. The experiment at the Institute of Cytology and Genetics in Novosibirsk, Siberia explored whether selection for behaviour rather than morphology may have been the process that had produced dogs from wolves, by recording the changes in foxes when in each generation only the most tame foxes were allowed to breed. Many of the descendant foxes became both tamer and more dog-like in morphology, including displaying mottled- or spotted-coloured fur.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Domestication of animals</span> Overview of animal domestication

The domestication of animals is the mutual relationship between non-human animals and the humans who have influence on their care and reproduction.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Working animal</span> Domesticated animals for assisting people

A working animal is an animal, usually domesticated, that is kept by humans and trained to perform tasks instead of being slaughtered to harvest animal products. Some are used for their physical strength or for transportation, while others are service animals trained to execute certain specialized tasks. They may also be used for milking or herding. Some, at the end of their working lives, may also be used for meat or other products such as leather.

The dog is a domesticated descendant of the wolf. Also called the domestic dog, it is derived from extinct Pleistocene wolves, and the modern wolf is the dog's nearest living relative. Dogs were the first species to be domesticated by hunter-gatherers over 15,000 years ago before the development of agriculture. Due to their long association with humans, dogs have expanded to a large number of domestic individuals and gained the ability to thrive on a starch-rich diet that would be inadequate for other canids.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Domestication of the dog</span> Process which created the domestic dog

The domestication of the dog was the process which created the domestic dog. This included the dog's genetic divergence from the wolf, its domestication, and the emergence of the first dogs. Genetic studies suggest that all ancient and modern dogs share a common ancestry and descended from an ancient, now-extinct wolf population – or closely related wolf populations – which was distinct from the modern wolf lineage. The dog's similarity to the grey wolf is the result of substantial dog-into-wolf gene flow, with the modern grey wolf being the dog's nearest living relative. An extinct Late Pleistocene wolf may have been the ancestor of the dog.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Paleolithic dog</span> Late Pleistocene canine

The Paleolithic dog was a Late Pleistocene canine. They were directly associated with human hunting camps in Europe over 30,000 years ago and it is proposed that these were domesticated. They are further proposed to be either a proto-dog and the ancestor of the domestic dog or an extinct, morphologically and genetically divergent wolf population.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Polynesian Dog</span> Breed of dog

The Polynesian Dog refers to a few extinct varieties of domesticated dogs from the islands of Polynesia. These dogs were used for both companionship and food and were introduced alongside poultry and pigs to various islands. They became extinct as a result of the crossbreeding that occurred after European breeds of dogs were introduced. Modern studies done on the DNA of the Polynesian dogs indicate that they descended from the domesticated dogs of Southeast Asia and may have shared a remote ancestor with the dingo.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Domestication syndrome</span> Proposed biological phenomenon

Domestication syndrome refers to two sets of phenotypic traits that are common to either domesticated animals, or domesticated plants. These traits were identified by Charles Darwin in The Variation of Animals and Plants Under Domestication.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Camilla Speller</span> Biomolecular archaeologist and researcher

Camilla F. Speller is a biomolecular archaeologist, Assistant Professor in Anthropological Archaeology at the University of British Columbia Department of Anthropology.

Dogor is a preserved canine specimen that was found in the Siberian permafrost of Sakha in 2018. It is a remarkably well preserved two-month-old male puppy with fur and whiskers remaining. The animal has been determined to be 18,000 years old. At first, DNA sequencing was unable to identify the animal as either a dog or a wolf. Anders Bergström, a postdoctoral fellow in ancient genomics at the Francis Crick Institute in London, identified Dogor as an ancient wolf as reported in a study published June 29, 2022 in Nature magazine. However, the specimen did not belong to the ancient, east Eurasian progenitor population of wolves from which dogs are thought to have evolved, suggesting perhaps a dual ancestry for dogs.

Ian Barnes is an evolutionary geneticist notable for his work on ancient DNA, human and animal migration, and phylogenetics. Barnes is a Research Leader in the Department of Earth Sciences at the Natural History Museum in London.

References

  1. "Professor Greger Larson". www.arch.ox.ac.uk.
  2. 1 2 3 "Conversations with: Professor Greger Larson". March 6, 2021.
  3. Larson, Greger John (2006). "Genetic insights into the patterns and processes of domestication". E-Thesis Online Service. The British Library Board. Retrieved 17 July 2023.
  4. "Welcome | PalaeoBarn". www.palaeobarn.com.
  5. "Prof. Greger Larson". www.bioanth.ox.ac.uk.
  6. https://gtr.ukri.org/person/06B84DD4-77E3-4B3E-B5AF-D158272A24B5
  7. "DNA gives insight into prehistoric bonds between dogs and humans". Horizon: the EU Research & Innovation magazine.
  8. Callaway, Ewen (October 29, 2020). "Ancient dog DNA reveals 11,000 years of canine evolution". Nature. 587 (7832): 20. Bibcode:2020Natur.587...20C. doi: 10.1038/d41586-020-03053-2 . PMID   33122839.
  9. "Dr. Greger Larson, Durham University – Ancient Dogs | WAMC". 7 September 2012.
  10. "Study of ancient dog DNA traces canine diversity to the Ice Age". Crick.
  11. Yong, Story by Ed (2 June 2016). "A New Origin Story for Dogs" via The Atlantic.
  12. "How dogs tracked their humans across the ancient world". Science | AAAS. October 29, 2020.
  13. Gorman, James (January 18, 2016). "The Big Search to Find Out Where Dogs Come From". The New York Times.