A team of Siberian huskies races in the Anchorage Fur Rendezvous in 2013 in Alaska.
Britt Coon
The History of dogs and their co-evolution with humans as they diverged from their wolf ancestors is a fascinating and complex story, most of which, like 99.9975% of all of the history of life on Earth occurred before creationist's legendary 'Creation Week'.
'Creation Week' is when creationists believe a magic god made of nothing magicked a small universe consisting of a single flat planet with a dome over it, centred on the Middle East, all out of nothing, in just 6 days about 10,000 years ago, (although why an omnipotent god couldn't have done it all in an instant and needed 6 full days, with a day to recover from the effort, is never explained).
What can you tell em about the origins of the Arctic sled dogs? The origins of Arctic sled dogs are deeply intertwined with the history of human survival and adaptation in some of the harshest environments on Earth. These dogs, particularly breeds like the Siberian Husky, Alaskan Malamute, and Greenland Dog, have been bred for thousands of years by indigenous peoples of the Arctic, including the Chukchi of Siberia, the Inuit of Greenland and Canada, and other northern groups.Now a little bit of that human-dog coevolution has been clarified somewhat by researchers investigating the origins of the Arctic sled dogs, which have been used for thousands of years to pull sledged over the snows of Siberia, Alaska, Northern Canada and Greenland.
Key Points about Their Origins:
These dogs remain an iconic symbol of life in the Arctic, embodying the resilience and resourcefulness necessary to survive in extreme climates.
- Ancient Lineage: The ancestors of Arctic sled dogs likely date back over 9,000 years, evolving alongside the nomadic peoples who migrated across northern Siberia, through the Bering land bridge, and into North America. Archaeological evidence shows that humans and dogs coexisted and worked together in these regions for millennia.
- Purpose-Bred for Survival: These dogs were bred specifically for pulling sleds over long distances in icy and snowy conditions. They were essential for transportation, hunting, and communication in areas that were otherwise inaccessible. Arctic sled dogs developed stamina, strength, and the ability to withstand extreme cold, making them indispensable to their human companions.
- Adaptation to Harsh Conditions: Over generations, Arctic sled dogs adapted to the freezing temperatures of their environment. Their thick, double-layered coats protect them from the cold, while their physiology allows them to thrive in environments with limited food. They also developed pack behaviors that enhanced their ability to work as a team.
- Genetic History: Recent genetic studies suggest that these dogs share ancient wolf ancestry and have interbred minimally with modern breeds. The Greenland Dog, for example, is genetically distinct and closely linked to the original sled dogs used by the Thule people, ancestors of the Inuit, who migrated from Siberia to Greenland around 1,000 years ago.
- Cultural Significance: For Arctic peoples, sled dogs were not just animals; they were vital partners in daily life. Dogs were valued for their endurance, loyalty, and intelligence. The role of the sled dog is celebrated in many indigenous Arctic traditions and continues to be part of their cultural identity.
- European Influence and Modern Breeding: With European exploration of the Arctic in the 19th and 20th centuries, sled dogs gained wider recognition. Some European explorers adopted local dogs for expeditions. This period also led to the development of modern sled dog racing and the establishment of standardized breeds like the Siberian Husky in the United States. Despite some crossbreeding for racing or aesthetic purposes, traditional Arctic sled dogs have retained many of their original traits.
The results of the research, led by Professor Heather Jay Huson of Cornell University, Ithaca, NY, is published open access in the Oxford Academic journal Genome Biology And Evolution. As described in a Cornell News article:
Genomics reveals sled dogs’ Siberian lineage
When breeders of Siberian huskies began contacting Heather Huson ’97, frantic after learning their purebred dogs were showing ancestry from other breeds in ancestry tests, Huson decided to find out why.
Huson – a former sled dog racer who is now associate professor of animal science in the College of Agriculture and Life Sciences (CALS) – was conducting research several years ago on the genomic variation in Siberians, based on whether they’re being bred for show, companion or sledding competition.
There was a real concern from these Siberian breeders – who were mostly racing their dogs – that they were sending out their dogs’ DNA samples for analysis, more for the context of health traits, and they were getting breed ancestry information back that said their dog was not 100% Siberian husky. Many (ancestry tests) were saying the Siberian huskies were a certain percentage Alaskan husky or Alaskan sled dog.
Professor Heather Jay Huson, senior author
Department of Animal Sciences
Cornell University College of Agriculture and Life Sciences
Ithaca, NY, USA.
That set Huson and colleagues on a new research path to examine thousands of years of Arctic sled dog ancestry, and when and how Siberian and Alaskan sled dogs’ DNA mixed.
Their massive genomic survey of the Siberian husky has revealed that sled dogs descended from two distinct lineages of Arctic canids and originated in the northeastern Siberian Arctic generations earlier than previously thought. The study also showed that approximately half of all Siberian huskies bred for racing have introgression with European breeds.
Huson is co-corresponding author of “Comparative Population Genomics of Arctic Sled Dogs Reveals a Deep and Complex History,” which published Sept. 14 in Genome Biology and Evolution.
The other corresponding author is Tracy Smith, senior lecturer in the Department of Biological Sciences at the University of Maryland, Baltimore County (UMBC). Krishnamoorthy (Kris) Srikanth, a postdoctoral researcher in CALS and a member of Huson’s lab, is the other co-author.
Huson said her team’s findings regarding genomic history are an important tool in the effort to sustain ancient lineages, such as the Siberian husky, and their unique evolutionary identity.
For their research, Huson and her team collected and analyzed DNA samples (or genomic data) from 344 dogs – mostly registered Siberian huskies but also Alaskan malamutes, Alaskan sled dogs, Chukotka sled dogs and one each of German shepherd, golden retriever, German shorthaired pointer, Samoyed and Saluki.We started this study to try to answer this question about breed admixture. We wondered, is it really a common Arctic sled dog ancestry that is just showing up as Alaskan husky in Siberians? Or is it Siberian (DNA) that went into Alaskans, or Alaskan going into Siberian? How do we know which way it went?
Professor Heather Jay Huson.
Gene flow between Siberian huskies and European breeds was found, and the researchers were able to determine that the flow was from European breeds to Siberians, and not the other way around. The team used the German shorthaired pointer, golden retriever and German shepherd to represent the European breeds.
By identifying gene flow from European breeds to Siberian huskies, it can be inferred that there was gene flow from Alaskan huskies – which are a mixture of European and Arctic breed ancestry – into the Siberian and that ancestry findings were not picking up common Arctic lineage between the sledding dogs.
Exactly when that occurred is still a mystery, although the researchers think it was after breed formation.
The researchers found that at least two distinct lineages of Arctic dogs existed in ancient Eurasia at the end of the Pleistocene era, which ended approximately 11,700 years ago. This finding pushes back significantly the origin of sled dogs in the northeast Siberian Arctic, “with humans likely intentionally selecting dogs to perform different functions,” the authors wrote. That kept concurrent breeding populations relatively reproductively isolated.
Understanding the genomic history is essential, the authors wrote, for developing effective policies and best practices for breed management.It was thought that there was this one Arctic lineage, but what we identified was that there are these two. One leads to our modern Siberian husky – smaller body size and stature – and the other one leads to this larger body size and to what we see now as Greenland sled dogs, and potentially the Alaskan malamutes.
Professor Heather Jay Huson.This work was supported by funding from UMBC, Neogen Genomics and the Siberian Husky Club of America.The more genetic diversity you have, generally the better your genetic health. The slightly admixed racing Siberian huskies bring this genetic diversity to the population, yet confound the original Arctic lineage which produced early Siberian huskies.
Professor Heather Jay Huson.
AbstractThe diffulty this research presents to creationists is not just that the genomic evidence points to divergence, firstly from a, now-extinct, ancestral wolf some 22,000 years before their mythology says there was an Earth with life on it, but they have to try to forcefit it into their genocidal flood myth which is all part of the evidence-free creation myth.
Recent evidence demonstrates genomic and morphological continuity in the Arctic ancestral lineage of dogs. Here, we use the Siberian Husky to investigate the genomic legacy of the northeast Eurasian Arctic lineage and model the deep population history using genome-wide single nucleotide polymorphisms. Utilizing ancient dog-calibrated molecular clocks, we found that at least two distinct lineages of Arctic dogs existed in ancient Eurasia at the end of the Pleistocene. This pushes back the origin of sled dogs in the northeast Siberian Arctic with humans likely intentionally selecting dogs to perform different functions and keeping breeding populations that overlap in time and space relatively reproductively isolated. In modern Siberian Huskies, we found significant population structure based on how they are used by humans, recent European breed introgression in about half of the dogs that participate in races, moderate levels of inbreeding, and fewer potentially harmful variants in populations under strong selection for form and function (show, sled show, and racing populations of Siberian Huskies). As the struggle to preserve unique evolutionary lineages while maintaining genetic health intensifies across pedigreed dogs, understanding the genomic history to guide policies and best practices for breed management is crucial to sustain these ancient lineages and their unique evolutionary identity.
Significance
The early evolution and genetic health of dogs have spurred significant interest with the public as well as the broader scientific community. In this research, we focus on the Siberian Husky as a model from the northeast Eurasian Arctic ancestral lineage of dogs and perform one of the largest genomic surveys of any modern breed. We reconstructed the evolutionary history of this lineage and found contemporary American and Eurasian Arctic sled dogs to be more distantly related than previously thought, pushing back the origin of sled dogs to the end of the Pleistocene. Recent West Eurasian admixture, small population size, and inbreeding introduce a challenge to the conservation of these ancient lineages.
Introduction
Recent advances in phylogenomics, population genetics, ancient DNA analysis, and comparative genomics are allowing us to reconstruct the past and dig deeper into the origin and evolution of dogs. It is generally accepted that the dog evolved alongside hunter–gatherer human populations in Eurasia sometime during the late Pleistocene from a now-extinct wolf ancestor. Although exactly when, where, and how many domestication events are still debated (Savolainen et al. 2002; Pang et al. 2009; Freedman et al. 2014; Skoglund et al. 2015; Perri et al. 2021), recent findings suggest that modern dogs are more closely related to ancient wolves from Eastern Siberia and China than to those from Western Eurasia, indicating a likely domestication event in East Eurasia (Bergström et al. 2022). However, ancient and modern western dogs have up to half of their ancestry related to southwestern Eurasian wolves, with evidence of genetic continuity from Neolithic to modern European dogs (Botigué et al. 2017). This may suggest a second domestication or a large amount of ancient western wolf admixture in these regions (Bergström et al. 2022). By 11,000 years ago, at least three major ancestral dog lineages appeared to be well established: East Asian, West Eurasian (including European, Indian, and African dogs), and Arctic/American (Frantz et al. 2016; Ní Leathlobhair et al. 2018; Bergström et al. 2020; Feuerborn et al. 2021.1). The Arctic/American lineage includes 9,500-year-old sled dog remains from Zhokhov Island, Siberia, several mid-Holocene dogs from Lake Baikal and other sites across Siberia, ancient North American precontact dogs, and modern sled dog breeds such as the Siberian Husky and Greenland sled dog (Sinding et al. 2020.1; Feuerborn et al. 2021.1). Notably, numerous dog and wooden sled remains from the Zhokhov site in Arctic Siberia provide compelling evidence that dogs were already pulling sleds 9,500 years ago (Pitulko and Kasparov 2017.1; Sinding et al. 2020.1). This phylogenetic clustering of modern-day and ancient sled dogs supports genetic continuity and indicates that the sled dog originated >9,500 years ago in the northeast Siberian Arctic (Sinding et al. 2020.1). Yet, while previous research has shown that the ancient American Arctic lineage of precontact dogs has been mostly lost after the colonization of the Americas (Ní Leathlobhair et al. 2018), the genomic history and legacy of the northeast Eurasian Arctic lineage of sled dogs remain largely unexplored.
Archaeological evidence suggests sled dogs were at an advanced stage of domestication by the time of the Zhokhov dogs. Pitulko and Kasparov (2017.1) concluded at least two fully domesticated and standardized dog forms were present at the ancient Zhokhov site with 10 out of 11 individuals “perfectly correspond[ing] to the modern Siberian Husky standard” in terms of body weight and height and a second larger breed similar in size to the modern Alaskan Malamute (hereafter Malamute) and Greenland sled dog. This is probably not a coincidence as we would expect strong purifying selection for optimal efficiency in working dogs. In sled dogs used for long-distance transportation, larger dogs cannot radiate heat fast enough and small dogs have problems conserving heat and keeping up with a team of larger dogs; thus, a body size of 38 to 55 lbs (17.2 to 24.9 kg) has been shown to be optimal in dogs that pull light loads over long distances (Phillips et al. 1981). Morphometric differences between the two forms suggest humans might have already been selecting dogs for different functions, with the Siberian Husky-like morph likely being better suited for pulling sleds long distances, and the larger morph for freighting, hunting, or defending against large predators. More recent, 2,000-year-old Arctic dog remains from the Aachim-Mayak site in West Chukotka also fall within the modern Siberian Husky standard (Pitulko and Kasparov 2017.1) and may demonstrate the temporal consistency of size and weight of at least one form of Arctic dog in this region.
The sled dogs that inhabited the far northeast of Siberia, east of the Indigirka River, and predominantly associated with Chukchi, Koryak, Yukagir, and Kamchadal people, were the progenitors of the modern Siberian Husky breed (Thomas and Thomas 2015.1). In coastal regions, these sled dogs were vital to the survival of humans whose main sustenance came from hunting walrus and seals on sea ice (Bogoslovskaya 2022.1). Sled dogs were also used for transportation across mountainous tundra with severe climatic conditions and winters that last much of the year. Indeed, it may be this harsh and isolated environment that contributed to the historic genetic isolation of northeastern Siberian sled dogs. This contrasts with the northwestern Siberian dog populations that appear to have experienced multiple admixture episodes from the Eurasian Steppe and Europe over the past few thousand years (Feuerborn et al. 2021.1). Although, by the late 1700s, Russian expansion had reached the far northeast, and by the early 20th century, Soviet collectivization led to significant conflict in this region (Kuzina 2022.2). Many affluent farmers, who were also the dog breeders, were killed (Crane 1977), resulting in a loss of knowledge and skills related to reindeer herding and dog sledding (Kuzina 2022.2). Around the same time, a large number of the Siberian dogs were imported to Alaska to compete in sled dog races against the much larger native Alaskan sled dogs and other dogs brought to Alaska during the gold rush. A subset of the many Siberian dogs, which arrived or directly descended from dogs arriving via direct importation from Siberia to Alaska between the years 1908 and 1930, were recognized as the foundation stock of the Siberian Husky breed by the American Kennel Club (AKC) in 1930.
By the mid-20th century in Russia, dog sledding was decreed as economically inefficient and damaging to the fisheries (Kuzina 2022.2). Many sled dogs were killed or interbred with foreign cultured breeds to produce larger dogs that could pull heavier loads and hunt and retrieve (Handford 1998; Kuzina 2022.2). However, the Chukchi people are believed to be the most likely to have maintained their sled dogs free of foreign admixture, particularly in isolated villages along the northeastern coast where the harsh climate also influences survival (Thomas and Thomas 2015.1; Potseluyeva 2022.3). By 1970, the sled dog population in eastern Siberia had collapsed due to modern transportation, a decline in hunting and fishing, food shortages, and disease introduced by foreign dogs (Bogoslovskaya 2022.1). Russian cynologists did not recognize the Chukotka sled dog as a breed, which, combined with the decree and efforts to interbred them with foreign nonsled dogs, may suggest local extirpation or genomic replacement over the past century. In 1988, a survey of dogs in Chukotka districts and villages revealed 1,594 dogs remained (compared to 50,700 in 1937 in Kamchatka alone), but only about 400 were likely of Arctic origin with the rest considered mixes with varying amounts of sled dog ancestry (Bogoslovskaya 2022.1). Attempts to restore the breed commenced in the 1980s, which was later recognized as the Chukotka Sled Dog (CSD) by the Russian Kynological Federation in the late 20th century.
The recognition of a breed by a kennel club primarily serves two purposes: gene pool isolation and pedigree record keeping. By prohibiting crossbreeding between recognized breeds, kennel clubs establish artificial breed barriers that ensure gene pool isolation and provide a detailed record of ancestry for registered dogs. Consequently, all the genetic diversity a kennel club-recognized breed will ever have is in the gene pool at breed formation, barring any permitted studbook additions or unpermitted crossbreeding and subsequent parentage and pedigree falsification. Here, we investigate the impact of breed barriers on the genetic health of the Siberian Husky, and we test for population differentiation within the breed based on how the dogs are used by humans (show, sled show, racing, pet, or Seppala). We define show dogs as those who compete in conformation shows and are generally bred to a written kennel club standard. Sled show dogs similarly compete in conformation but are also used for sledding and other mushing sports. Racing dogs are bred for function (e.g. to pull sleds for touring kennels or to participate in sled dog races) and may or may not be bred with a specific aesthetic vision. Pet dogs are typically bred for the sole purpose of selling pets to the public (and do not include dogs from the other populations who are also used as pets). Lastly, the Seppala dogs trace their history back to several Siberian dogs that were sold to a single kennel in the 1930s and a split between breeding philosophies. Recently, the Seppala Siberian population has been elevated to breed status in the Continental Kennel Club—although many are still registered as Siberian Huskies in other kennel clubs around the world.
To assess the impact of closed gene pools and breed barriers on genetic health, we leveraged the Zoonomia alignment of 240 mammals (Zoonomia Consortium 2020.2; Christmas et al. 2023) and measured runs of homozygosity (ROH) to infer damaging variants and assess levels of genetic diversity to aid in preservation of these evolutionarily unique dog lineages. We also use the Siberian Husky as a model to evaluate the genomic legacy of the Eurasian Arctic lineage using genome-wide single nucleotide polymorphism (SNP) data from 358 canids including 280 registered Siberian Huskies and 5 modern CSDs from Russia (see Materials and Methods). We analyzed this genomic data to investigate evolutionary relatedness, population structure, and West Eurasian admixture. We evaluated shared ancestry between modern sled dogs and ancient Arctic dogs, and we reconstructed the deep population history of Arctic dogs using fossil calibrations to estimate divergence times.
[…]
Fig. 1. PCAs of Arctic and West Eurasian dogs. Each point represents an individual dog. Colors signify owner-reported population or breed. a) PCA of all breeds included in this study, including two projected ancient dogs (Zhokov and AL3194), using the balanced data set (n = 91). The two main principal components explain ∼29% of the observed genetic variation. b) PCA of all Siberian Husky (show, sled show, pet, racing, and Seppala populations) and Alaskan sled dogs with closely related individuals removed (kinship coefficient < 0.088; n = 218). Numbers denote the ten subsampled individuals per population used in the balanced data set. The ellipse represents the 99% confidence interval assuming a multivariate t-distribution. The two main principal components explain ∼40% of the observed genetic variation. Starting in the lower left-hand corner, images are of dogs in the show, pet, racing (firmly inside ellipse) (copyright owner Megan Moberly), Seppala (copyright owner Louise Evans), racing (outside of ellipse), and Alaskan sled dog (copyright owner Jaye Foucher) populations.
Fig. 5. Fossil calibrated divergence time estimates and admixture modeling. a) A time-calibrated MCC tree using SNAPP v1.6.1 (Bryant et al. 2012), implemented in BEAST2 v2.7.5.0 (Bouckaert et al. 2014.1), using divergence time estimation methods of Stange et al. (2018.1). Labels to the right of the nodes are mean height node ages. The 95% HPD intervals for node ages are shown with gray bars. b) Admixture graph inferring demographic history using qpGraph in ADMIXTOOLS v2.0.0 (Patterson et al. 2012.1). Dotted lines and percentages reflect admixture events and ancestry proportions. Numbers on branches denote genetic drift/selection units (f2 statistics) multiplied by 1,000. The best-fitting model shown here has three admixture events with a score of 3.61 and WR = 1.16 and shows substantial ancient wolf ancestry in the Zhokhov/Greenland lineage. c) Pleistocene wolf introgression is also evident in the Greenland sled dog/Zhokhov lineage using TreeMix (Pickrell and Pritchard 2012.2) and is not found in other Arctic dog breeds. Residuals above 0 indicate the two breeds are more closely related than illustrated by the tree and thus may be admixed. d) A predicted phenotypic reconstruction of the ancient Zhokhov sled dog based on genotypes at various coat color and other trait loci (supplementary table S10, Supplementary Material online).
Conclusion
European colonization, Soviet expansion, and intentional crossbreeding have led to West Eurasian breed introgression in modern Arctic dog populations, potentially threatening the genomic identity or replacement of unique dog lineages that have existed for thousands of years (Handford 1998; Ní Leathlobhair et al. 2018; Sinding et al. 2020.1; Feuerborn et al. 2021.1; Bogoslovskaya 2022.1). Here, we found that the Siberian Husky (excluding around half of the dogs that participate in sled dog races) and Greenland sled dog represent two of the least-admixed remaining populations of modern Arctic dogs, descending from ancient dog lineages with a continuous history since the late Pleistocene. However, modern breed barriers and the isolation of small, purpose-specific populations have led to significant differentiation and moderate levels of inbreeding in the Siberian Husky over short evolutionary timescales, presenting challenges to the long-term conservation of this lineage. As the struggle to preserve distinct evolutionary lineages while maintaining genetic health intensifies across pedigreed dogs, understanding the genomic history is essential for developing effective policies and best practices for breed management.
Tracy A Smith, Krishnamoorthy Srikanth, Heather Jay Huson,
Comparative Population Genomics of Arctic Sled Dogs Reveals a Deep and Complex History,
Genome Biology and Evolution, 16(9), September 2024, evae190, https://doi.org/10.1093/gbe/evae190
Copyright: © 2024 The authors.
Published by Oxford University Press. Open access.
Reprinted under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International license (CC BY 4.0)
The standard mental contortion to reconcile belief in that childish tale with the evidence of far too many species to have two (or seven) of each on a wooden boat for a year, is to invoke what they call 'kinds' and claim that only two of each 'kind' were on the wooden boat. This then requires belief in an impossible rate of evolution to get all the different species radiating from such a small founder population in a few thousand years, while no-one alive thought to record the 'fact' of all these new species springing up around them.
Until a few years ago, creationist dogma asserted that evolution was impossible because, in some inexplicable way which deliberately confused information with energy, it was forbidden by the Second Law of Thermodynamics [sic] and so never happed. Then it slowly dawned on the cult leaders that it was becoming even more ridiculous to claim two of several hundred different species all crowded together in a wooden boat for a year, or that a wooden boat big enough could be constructed, so the number of animals allegedly on the boat was drastically pruned down and the biologically non-sensical warp-speed form of evolution was invented. Then evolution became not only possible but and essential part of the mythology.
But that then requires all the different dog breeds to have developed in just a few thousand years, along with the wolves, coyotes, jackals, foxes and other species of canid that we have today, some genera of which contain multiple species and sub-species.
So creationists need to come clean on this one: were domestic dogs and wolves together on their mythical boat or have all the canids, including all the different dogs breeds, the dingo, the jackals and coyotes and the many different foxes all diversified in the last few thousand years, and their genomes have been rearranged to make it look like they diversified many thousands of years ago, so the Alaskan Sled dogs look closer to an ancestral wolf than a German shepherd dog or a golden retriever?
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