Rosa Rubicondior: Refuting Creationism - How Dogs Spread Across The Americas - Then Survived The Legendary Biblical Global Flood

Figure 1. Distribution of archaeological samples analysed in this study.

Manin, Aurélie, et al (2025)

Ancient DNA reveals new clues about the incredible journey of dogs in the Americas | University of Oxford

According to the Bible, all living things outside Noah’s Ark were destroyed once Noah, his family, and his chosen animals were safely sealed inside (Genesis 7:4). This supposedly happened around 4,000 years ago, according to the biblical narrative — which creationists firmly believe to be inerrant history.

The snag is, the evidence simply doesn’t support that timeline—or a global flood involving mass extinction by drowning. Not only would such a flood have left a distinctive global deposit of sediment, containing a chaotic mix of ancient and modern animal and plant species from disconnected continents, but it would also have erased all archaeological traces of earlier civilisations and palaeontological evidence of past life. In effect, it would have reset the clocks of both archaeology and palaeontology to start around 4,000 years ago.

Unfortunately for biblical literalists, that’s not what we see. The predicted tell-tale layer of silt is conspicuously absent. Instead, both archaeology and palaeontology reveal a pattern of uninterrupted occupation of the planet by animals and humans stretching back tens of thousands—and, in the case of animal and plant species, hundreds of millions—of years. For anatomically modern humans, there is a consistent archaeological record documenting their spread across all land masses (except Antarctica), during which they domesticated animals such as dogs, which migrated alongside them.

One example of this pattern — the migration of domestic dogs with humans into the Americas between 7,000 and 5,000 years ago — has just been published in Proceedings of the Royal Society B, by an international team of scientists led by Dr Aurélie Manin from the School of Archaeology at the University of Oxford. They have shown that all South American dogs prior to the arrival of Europeans, trace their ancestry back to a single female. One strain — the Mexican Chihuahua - still shows evidence of that ancestry.

Migration of modern humans into the Americas. The migration of anatomically modern humans into the Americas is a complex and evolving field of study, with insights drawn from archaeology, genetics, linguistics, and palaeoecology. Here's a summary of the current understanding:

Timing of Migration

Traditional View: For much of the 20th century, the prevailing view was that humans entered the Americas around 13,000 years ago, associated with the Clovis culture. This was based on distinctive fluted projectile points found across North America.
Revised View: More recent discoveries have pushed this date significantly earlier, with credible archaeological sites suggesting human presence in the Americas at least 15,000 to 20,000 years ago, and possibly earlier.

Key sites include:

Monte Verde, Chile (~14,500 years ago)
Bluefish Caves, Yukon (~24,000 years ago, disputed)
Buttermilk Creek Complex, Texas (~15,500 years ago)
White Sands, New Mexico (fossil human footprints dated to ~21,000–23,000 years ago, though these dates are still debated)

Route(s) of Migration

Two main routes have been proposed:

a. Inland Ice-Free Corridor

A corridor between the Laurentide and Cordilleran ice sheets opened around 13,000 years ago.
Once thought to be the main route, but now considered too late to explain the earliest sites.
b. Pacific Coastal Route

Humans may have migrated along the western coast of North America before the ice-free corridor was viable.
They likely used boats and coastal resources to travel southwards.
This theory is supported by early sites and the rich maritime archaeology of later cultures.

Some also propose that early humans used both routes at different times.

Genetic Evidence

Genetic studies show that Native Americans descend from a population that:

Split from East Asians around 25,000 years ago
Lived in Beringia (the land bridge between Siberia and Alaska) in isolation for several thousand years (a "Beringian standstill")
Migrated into the Americas probably in a single major wave, followed by later diversification

Genetic diversity suggests rapid southward expansion, reaching South America within a few thousand years.
DNA from ancient remains (e.g. Anzick-1, Spirit Cave, Lagoa Santa) confirms continuity with modern Indigenous peoples and points to at least two founding lineages, both derived from a single Beringian source.

Cultural and Technological Evidence

Early American peoples were highly mobile hunter-gatherers.
They rapidly adapted to diverse environments—from tundra to rainforest.
Technologies varied regionally, but often included:

Spear points (Clovis, Folsom)
Stone tools
Bone and antler tools
Fire use and habitation structures

Impact on Megafauna

Human arrival overlaps with the extinction of many large animals (mammoths, mastodons, giant sloths, etc.).
Debate continues over whether humans, climate change, or both were responsible.

Current Debates and Open Questions

Exactly when did humans arrive? Dates are being pushed further back as more evidence emerges.
How many waves of migration occurred? Some suggest multiple migrations over thousands of years.
What was the role of Beringia as a homeland, not just a passageway?
What happened to now-extinct populations such as the “Ancient Beringians”?

Their findings are also summarised in an Oxford University news release.

Ancient DNA reveals new clues about the incredible journey of dogs in the Americas
A major new study led by Dr Aurélie Manin from the School of Archaeology at the University of Oxford has traced the incredible journey of humankind’s best friend across the Americas, showing how dogs slowly spread southward alongside early farming societies - mirroring the rhythms of human migration, agriculture and cultural change.
An international team of scientists sequenced 70 complete mitochondrial genomes from archaeological and modern dogs, collected from Central Mexico to Central Chile and Argentina, revealing that all pre-contact dogs in Central and South America descended from a single maternal lineage that diverged from North American dogs after humans first arrived on the continent.

Rather than dispersing rapidly, dogs followed a slower path - what scientists call ‘isolation by distance’ - gradually adapting to new environments as they moved with people through the Americas between 7,000 and 5,000 years ago, in step with the spread of maize cultivation by early farming communities.

While the arrival of Europeans introduced new dog lineages that largely replaced indigenous ones, the team found that some modern Chihuahuas still carry maternal DNA from their pre-contact Mesoamerican ancestors. These rare genetic echoes highlight an enduring legacy of the first American dogs, and the deep roots of this iconic breed.

This study reinforces the important role of early agrarian societies in the spread of dogs worldwide. In the Americas, we show that their spread was slow enough to allow the dogs to structure genetically between north, central and south America. It is rather uncommon for domestic animals and it opens new research avenues on the relationship that existed between dogs and these early agrarian societies’.

Dr Aurélie Manin, lead author
Palaeogenomics and Bio-Archaeology Research Network
School of Archaeology
University of Oxford, Oxford, UK.

The study, adds a new chapter to the long, shared history of dogs and humans - one shaped by movement, survival, and enduring companionship across continents.

Publication:
Manin, Aurélie; Debruyne, Regis; Lin, Audrey; Lebrasseur, Ophélie; et al (2025)
Ancient dog mitogenomes support the dual dispersal of dogs and agriculture into South America
Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences 292(2049); 20242443. DOI: 10.1098/rspb.2024.2443.

Abstract
Archaeological and palaeogenomic data show that dogs were the only domestic animals introduced during the early peopling of the Americas. Hunter–gatherer groups spread quickly towards the south of the continent, but it is unclear when dogs reached Central and South America. To address this issue, we generated and analysed 70 complete mitochondrial genomes from archaeological and modern dogs ranging from Central Mexico to Central Chile and Argentina, revealing the dynamics of dog populations. Our results demonstrate that pre-contact Central and South American dogs are all assigned to a specific clade that diverged after dogs entered North America. Specifically, the divergence time between North, Central and South American dog clades is consistent with the spread of agriculture and the adoption of maize in South America between 7000 and 5000 years ago. An isolation-by-distance best characterizes how dogs expanded into South America. We identify the arrival of new lineages of dogs in post-contact South America, likely of European origin, and their legacy in modern village dogs. Interestingly, the pre-contact Mesoamerican maternal origin of the Chihuahua has persisted in some modern individuals.

1. Introduction
Dogs (Canis familiaris) accompanied early waves of people who entered North America at least 15 000−16 000 years before present (BP) [1–3]. They were the only domestic animal introduced from Eurasia into the Americas prior to the arrival of European settlers. Archaeological and morphological evidence suggest that Arctic dogs were used for sledding, which would have been instrumental for human groups crossing from the cold tundra of Siberia [4–7]. Ancient DNA analyses have shown that all dogs preceding contact with European settlers (hereafter referred to as pre-contact dogs) possessed mitochondrial haplotypes belonging to the mitochondrial A2b clade that is specific to the Americas [2,3,8]. Dogs belonging to the A2b clade spread throughout the Americas, except in the Amazon basin where linguistic data suggest that they were unknown until the Europeans arrived, during the sixteenth century [9,10].

Archaeological data show that by 14 000 BP people had spread into Central and South America, likely following coastlines and riverways [11–13]. The distribution of human mitochondrial lineages in North, Central and South America suggests a rapid and single expansion [14,15], although nuclear DNA indicates a more complex pattern involving macro-regional migrations throughout the Holocene [16,17]. In contrast, archaeological evidence for dogs suggest that they were introduced much later in Central Mexico and further south. The earliest commonly accepted dog remains in Mexico, Ecuador and Peru are dated to 5200−5000 BP, suggesting that dogs only became widespread in these regions following the adoption of agriculture ca 7000 BP [18–21], but the reasons for their delayed dispersal in the region remain contentious [9,22,23].

However, identifying early dogs in American archaeological contexts has been complicated by the large diversity of canids that possess similar morphological features to dogs [24]. For instance, at Coxcatlan Cave, where the earliest dogs in Mexico have been identified, Flannery [18] reported the presence of coyote (Canis latrans), grey fox (Urocyon cinereoargenteus) and a large, likely extinct, fox-like canid species pre-dating 5000 BP. In fact, the largest diversity of extant wild canids [25] as well as extinct large foxes, such as Dusicyon avus [26], is found in South America. The limited number of features that can be used to morphologically distinguish extinct and extant species, and the high prevalence of fragmented bone remains in the archaeological record have resulted in many misidentifications [24,27,28]. On several occasions, due to the lack of observable diagnostic criteria or accurate comparative collections, definitive species identification between dog, coyote [29,30], wolf [3] or fox [31] has only been possible using mitochondrial DNA. However, understanding further structuring in ancient American dog populations has been limited by the low-resolution power of the mitochondrial control region that was used in previous studies [32–35].

Moreover, modern domestic dogs cannot be used as a genetic reference to address the delayed dispersal of dogs into Central and South America. The European colonization of the Americas led to the introduction of Eurasian dogs whose ancestry became the dominant feature of dog populations in the Americas today [8,32,36,37]. The indigenous American A2b mitochondrial clade, and its associated nuclear ancestry, has now almost vanished from the continent. Pre-contact maternal lineages have only been found in two modern American dogs so far: a village dog from Nicaragua and a Chihuahua from the United States [38,39]. Evidence from nuclear DNA indicates that the proportion of Native American ancestry in modern American dogs (such as the Chihuahua and the Xoloitzcuintli) is approximately 3–4% at most [40].

To date, archaeogenomic studies of American dogs have largely focussed on North America [6,8] while ancient Central and South American dogs are poorly represented [31,41,42]. In order to address this gap in the research and estimate arrival time of dogs to these southern regions, as well as investigate dog population movements, we produced 62 new ancient mitochondrial genomes and eight modern mitochondrial genomes. Mitogenomes are uniparental markers that allow the reconstruction of the evolution of maternal lineages through time and space, and we used these markers here as a first evidence of dog population dynamics in Central and South America.

Figure 1. Distribution of archaeological samples analysed in this study. The number of individuals per site is indicated between brackets: 1 = Malpaís Prieto (n = 1); 2 = Vista Hermosa (n = 4); 3 = Tizayuca (n = 25); 4 = Chondorko (n = 1); 5 = Huaca Amarilla (n = 18); 6 = Huaca Grande (n = 9); 7 = Chilca (n = 2); 8 = Playa Miller 4 (n = 1); 9 = Iroco (n = 1); 10 = Pucará de Tilcara (n = 3); 11 = Finca Tolaba (n = 1); 12 = Santa Rosa de Tastil (n = 1); 13 = Antofagasta de la Sierra (n = 1); 14 = Loma Rica de Shiquimil (n = 1); 15 = Pampa Grande - Caverna III site (n = 1); 16 = El Olivar (n = 6); 17 = Los Nogales (n = 1); 18 = Talleres y Cocheras (n = 1); 19 = Observatorio Astronómico (n = 1); 20 = Angostura 1 (n = 1); 21 = Sierra Apas (n = 1); 22 = Chenque I (n = 1); 23 = La Lechuza (n = 1); 24 = Arroyo Las Mulas 1 = (n = 1); 25 = Lower Uruguay River (n = 1); 26 = Cerros de los Pampas (n = 1); 27 = Zacpeten (n = 2); 28 = Nixtun Ch'ich' (n = 6); 29 = Ucanal (n = 3); 30 = Xunantunich (n = 2); 31 = Cahal Pech (n = 10); 32 = Baking Pot (n = 2); 33 = Habitation La Ramée (n = 1); 34 = Cathédrale de Basse Terre (n = 1); 35 = Gare Maritime (n = 2); 36 = Morel (n = 5); 37 = Rosamachay (n = 1); 38 = Wari (n = 1); 39 = Wichqana (n = 1); 40 = Lares (n = 8); 41 = Cuzco (n = 4); 42 = Torata Alta (n = 1); 43 = Omo (n = 1); 44 = Río Muerto (n = 1); 45 = Qiwaya (n = 3); 46 = Tiwanaku (n = 2).

Figure 2. Mitochondrial diversity of the pre-contact American dogs (see electronic supplementary material, table S3 for the list of samples). A = chronology of the sites considered in this study; sites whose samples are published here are indicated in bold; the numbers refer to the sites location on the following map. B = geographical distribution of the samples in the different sites; the larger font size refers to the new sites analysed here.

Figure 3. Time divergence estimates (bottom) for the nodes highlighted on the time-modelled Bayesian tree (top; relaxed clock, dataset 1). Posterior probabilities higher than 80% are represented by a pink circle on the tree and a filled diamond on the chronology. Empty diamonds indicate a posterior probability lower than 80%. Location of the radiocarbon and stratigraphically dated earliest fossils for North America, Mesoamerica, the Andean region and Southern South America are indicated on the map, along with the sites where dog DNA has been retrieved (each circle represent an individual). Mesoamerican and South American site names are given in figure 2A.

Manin, Aurélie; Debruyne, Regis; Lin, Audrey; Lebrasseur, Ophélie; et al (2025)
Ancient dog mitogenomes support the dual dispersal of dogs and agriculture into South America
Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences 292(2049); 20242443. DOI: 10.1098/rspb.2024.2443.

Copyright: © [year] The authors.
Published by [publisher]. Open access.
Reprinted under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International license (CC BY 4.0)

The new findings on the migration of domestic dogs into the Americas provide yet another blow to fundamental creationist claims about the age of the Earth and the supposed global flood. According to biblical literalism, all land-dwelling animals outside Noah’s Ark were wiped out in a single catastrophic event roughly 4,000 years ago. This would mean that no continuous animal lineages—domestic or wild—should pre-date this event, nor should there be any evidence of pre-Flood migration patterns or population continuity.

However, the genetic evidence presented by Dr Aurélie Manin and colleagues shows that domestic dogs accompanied human populations into South America between 7,000 and 5,000 years ago—well before the supposed date of the Flood. Even more significantly, these dogs can trace their ancestry to a single founding lineage, consistent with long-term, uninterrupted human-animal relationships stretching back thousands of years. This timeline contradicts any notion that animal populations were globally wiped out and subsequently re-established in just a few millennia by a small number of Ark-bound survivors.

Moreover, these findings support the broader scientific consensus of deep human prehistory, marked by gradual migrations, cultural adaptation, and co-evolution with domesticated animals. Such evidence is completely incompatible with the compressed and mythological chronology demanded by young-Earth creationism. Instead, it affirms an old Earth, a long and complex human past, and a world in which species were not created in their present forms but have instead evolved and dispersed over tens of thousands of years.

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