Dogs 2

Earlier I wondered about American dogs--among other things, where they went.

If this story is correct, even what I thought were native breeds (Chihuahuas) actually aren't.

Comparison of ancient and modern American dog genomes revealed that these unique, pre-contact American dogs rapidly disappeared following the arrival of European settlers and left little to no trace in modern American dogs. This disappearance was most likely due to a combination of factors, including new diseases, cultural preferences for European breeds, and extermination of native dogs.

I'd think that exterminating local breeds would rank extremely low on the to-do list of European settlers--but if the reports that European dogs hated the American breeds, it might be something they wanted to attend to. And if we tried to defend our dogs...

‘In fact, we now know that the modern American dogs beloved worldwide, such as Labradors, Xoloitzcuintli (Mexican hairless dogs), and Chihuahuas, are largely descended from Eurasian breeds, introduced to the Americas between the 15th and 20th centuries.’

The story goes on to suggest that the only trace of the old American breed is from a transmissible cancer that presumably originated in an American dog and infected the European dogs. Nice and weird.

People talk about trying to restore mammoths from DNA. I'd think dogs would be easier. If there were enough DNA samples. Maybe there are some frozen in the tundra?