近日，英国弗朗西斯·克里克研究所教授Pontus Skoglund及其团队研究出欧洲早期狗的基因组史。2026年3月25日出版的《自然》发表了这项成果。

在这里，该研究组分析了216具犬科动物遗骸，其中有181具来自旧石器时代和中石器时代的欧洲。研究组开发了一种全基因组捕获方法，将内源性DNA富集10-100倍，并在216具遗骸中的141具中区分出狗和狼的血统。课题组人员找到的最古老的狗的数据来自瑞士凯斯勒洛克遗址的一只14200年前的狗，课题组人员发现它与后来世界各地的狗有共同的祖先——这与欧洲旧石器时代晚期的狗完全来自一个单独的驯化过程的假设不一致。凯斯勒洛克犬与中石器时代、新石器时代和现代欧洲犬的亲缘关系已经超过了与亚洲犬的亲缘关系，这表明狗的基因多样化早在14200年前就开始了。研究团队发现新石器时代西南亚人的祖先涌入欧洲，但这似乎比人类的规模要小，这表明中石器时代的狗对新石器时代的狗有很大贡献，最终可能也有现代欧洲狗。

据介绍，最早的形态上可识别的狗来自欧洲，可追溯到至少14000年前，尽管在其他地区也发现了早期的遗骸。在缺乏全基因组数据的情况下，欧洲早期狗的起源以及它们与其他狗的关系仍然是一个谜。同样，尽管狗是唯一一种出现在农业之前的家畜，但人们对来自西南亚的新石器时代农民如何影响与欧洲中石器时代狩猎采集者生活在一起的狗知之甚少。

附：英文原文

Title: Genomic history of early dogs in Europe

Author: Bergstrm, Anders, Furtwngler, Anja, Johnston, Sarah, Rosengren, Erika, Breidenstein, Abagail, Booth, Thomas, McCabe, Jesse B., Peto, Jessica, Williams, Mia, Kelly, Monica, Tait, Frankie, Baumann, Chris, Radzeviciute, Rita, Barrington, Christopher, Anastasiadou, Kyriaki, Gilardet, Alexandre, Glocke, Isabelle, Sherman, Mattias, Brativnyk, Anastasia, Herbig, Alexander, Prfer, Kay, Pfrengle, Saskia, Gretzinger, Joscha, Feuerborn, Tatiana R., Reiter, Ella, Linderholm, Anna, Charlton, Sophy, Racimo, Fernando, Mikkola, Lea, Anderson-Whymark, Hugo, Baird, Douglas, Gotfredsen, Anne Birgitte, Bocherens, Herv, Bridault, Anne, Brocke, Rainer, Drucker, Dorothe G., Fairbairn, Andrew S., Frantz, Laurent, Gasparyan, Boris, Giemsch, Liane, Germonpr, Mietje, Janssens, Luc, Kandel, Andrew W., Kjr, Kurt, Lznikov-Galetov, Martina, Loponte, Daniel, Magnell, Ola, Martin, Louise, Mnzel, Susanne C., Mustafaolu, Gkhan, Mge, Bjrnar, Perri, Angela, Pfenninger, Franziska, Roblkov, Martina, Roman-Binois, Annelise, Sarta, zlem, Schppi, Katharina, Sheridan, J. Alison, Sjgren, Karl-Gran, Stor, Jan, Srensen, Lasse Vilien, Tafelmaier, Yvonne, Ter-Nedden, Florian, Thalmann, Olaf, Larson, Greger, Schuenemann, Verena J.

Issue&Volume: 2026-03-25

Abstract: The earliest morphologically identifiable dogs are from Europe and date to at least 14,000 years ago1,2,3,4,5, although early remains are also found in other regions. The origin of early dogs in Europe, and their relationships to other dogs, has remained elusive in the absence of genome-wide data. Similarly, although dogs were the only domestic animal to predate agriculture, little is known about how the arrival of Neolithic farmers from Southwest Asia affected the dogs living with European Mesolithic hunter-gatherers. Here we analysed 216 canid remains, including 181 from Palaeolithic and Mesolithic Europe. We developed a genome-wide capture approach that enriched endogenous DNA by 10–100-fold and could distinguish dog from wolf ancestry for 141 of 216 remains. The oldest dog data that we recovered are from a 14,200-year-old dog from the Kesslerloch site in Switzerland, and we find that it shares ancestry with later worldwide dogs—inconsistent with the hypothesis that European Upper Palaeolithic dogs derived wholly from a separate domestication process. The Kesslerloch dog already displays more affinity to Mesolithic, Neolithic and present-day European dogs than to Asian dogs, demonstrating that dog genetic diversification had started well before 14,200 years ago. We find a Neolithic influx of Southwest Asian ancestry into Europe, but this seems to have been of smaller magnitude than in humans, suggesting that Mesolithic dogs contributed substantially to Neolithic, and, ultimately, probably also modern, European dogs.

DOI: 10.1038/s41586-026-10112-7

Source: https://www.nature.com/articles/s41586-026-10112-7