Dataset Information

Specialized sledge dogs accompanied Inuit dispersal across the North American Arctic.

ABSTRACT: Domestic dogs have been central to life in the North American Arctic for millennia. The ancestors of the Inuit were the first to introduce the widespread usage of dog sledge transportation technology to the Americas, but whether the Inuit adopted local Palaeo-Inuit dogs or introduced a new dog population to the region remains unknown. To test these hypotheses, we generated mitochondrial DNA and geometric morphometric data of skull and dental elements from a total of 922 North American Arctic dogs and wolves spanning over 4500 years. Our analyses revealed that dogs from Inuit sites dating from 2000 BP possess morphological and genetic signatures that distinguish them from earlier Palaeo-Inuit dogs, and identified a novel mitochondrial clade in eastern Siberia and Alaska. The genetic legacy of these Inuit dogs survives today in modern Arctic sledge dogs despite phenotypic differences between archaeological and modern Arctic dogs. Together, our data reveal that Inuit dogs derive from a secondary pre-contact migration of dogs distinct from Palaeo-Inuit dogs, and probably aided the Inuit expansion across the North American Arctic beginning around 1000 BP.

SUBMITTER: Ameen C

PROVIDER: S-EPMC6939252 | biostudies-literature | 2019 Dec

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature

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Specialized sledge dogs accompanied Inuit dispersal across the North American Arctic.

Ameen Carly C Feuerborn Tatiana R TR Brown Sarah K SK Linderholm Anna A Hulme-Beaman Ardern A Lebrasseur Ophélie O Sinding Mikkel-Holger S MS Lounsberry Zachary T ZT Lin Audrey T AT Appelt Martin M Bachmann Lutz L Betts Matthew M Britton Kate K Darwent John J Dietz Rune R Fredholm Merete M Gopalakrishnan Shyam S Goriunova Olga I OI Grønnow Bjarne B Haile James J Hallsson Jón Hallsteinn JH Harrison Ramona R Heide-Jørgensen Mads Peter MP Knecht Rick R Losey Robert J RJ Masson-MacLean Edouard E McGovern Thomas H TH McManus-Fry Ellen E Meldgaard Morten M Midtdal Åslaug Å Moss Madonna L ML Nikitin Iurii G IG Nomokonova Tatiana T Pálsdóttir Albína Hulda AH Perri Angela A Popov Aleksandr N AN Rankin Lisa L Reuther Joshua D JD Sablin Mikhail M Schmidt Anne Lisbeth AL Shirar Scott S Smiarowski Konrad K Sonne Christian C Stiner Mary C MC Vasyukov Mitya M West Catherine F CF Ween Gro Birgit GB Wennerberg Sanne Eline SE Wiig Øystein Ø Woollett James J Dalén Love L Hansen Anders J AJ P Gilbert M Thomas MT Sacks Benjamin N BN Frantz Laurent L Larson Greger G Dobney Keith K Darwent Christyann M CM Evin Allowen A

Proceedings. Biological sciences 20191127 1916

Domestic dogs have been central to life in the North American Arctic for millennia. The ancestors of the Inuit were the first to introduce the widespread usage of dog sledge transportation technology to the Americas, but whether the Inuit adopted local Palaeo-Inuit dogs or introduced a new dog population to the region remains unknown. To test these hypotheses, we generated mitochondrial DNA and geometric morphometric data of skull and dental elements from a total of 922 North American Arctic dog ...[more]

PMID: 31771471

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Dataset Information

Specialized sledge dogs accompanied Inuit dispersal across the North American Arctic.

Publications

Specialized sledge dogs accompanied Inuit dispersal across the North American Arctic.

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