Oldest dog remains in Americas discovered in Alaska
A shard of bone tells the story of a canine companion that trekked into an icy new world, providing clues to the migrations of the earliest Americans.
For about 20 years, specimen PP-00128 in the earth sciences collection of the University of Alaska Museum was thought to belong to a rather old bear. The femur fragment, small enough to hold between two fingers, had been excavated from a site along the southeastern Alaskan coast where archaeologists also uncovered the remains of fish, birds, mammals, and humans going back thousands of years.
Recent genetic testing of the sample, however, proved to be a surprise to scientists—but perhaps not dog owners: PP-00128 once belonged to a loyal canine companion who trotted alongside humans into the icy new world of the Americas around 10,150 years ago.
The analysis of the oldest domesticated dog remains yet discovered in the Americas, published today in
