New Studies Show Dogs Existed Earlier Than Previously Thought

Although dogs are common pets, many people do not know how their furry friends originated. Many questions about dog origins, such as the location and causes of the domestication of dogs, remain unanswered, and scientists have tried to identify when dogs were first domesticated. 

In two studies published in the scientific journal Nature on March 25, 2026, researchers presented findings based on the oldest dog genes recorded. One study from the Natural History Museum in London by William Marsh et al. investigated dog genomes from sites in Turkey, the United Kingdom, and Serbia. The other study—conducted at the University of East Anglia and the Francis Crick Institute by Anders Bergström et al.—analyzed dog and wolf remains from Paleolithic and Mesolithic Europe, periods which spanned from around 2.5 million years ago to 8,000 B.C., with the oldest dog genes being from Switzerland.

The new studies found dog genomes from areas in the Middle East and Europe. The genes range from 14,000 to 16,000 years old, showing that dogs existed from over 5,000 years earlier than was previously thought. Prior to the two studies, the earliest identified dog genes were around 11,000 years old. The studies also pinpointed a previous dog species that was domesticated by hunter-gatherers in Western Eurasia, and no longer exists today, but has genetic similarities to modern dogs. Furthermore, the studies demonstrated that different groups of humans traded dogs, based on the widespread dispersal of a genetically similar type of dog, showing the key role of dogs in ancient human groups.

It has been known among the scientific community that dogs were originally domesticated from gray wolves, also known as Canis lupus. Domestication refers to the changes of a species’ genetic, behavioral, and physiological characteristics as it adjusts to human surroundings. In the process of domestication, the domesticator maintains the species’ continued existence, and the species supplies assistance and support to the domesticator, resulting in a symbiotic relationship. Humans began to rely on dogs for aid in tasks such as acquiring food and keeping watch against predators. It is not known, however, exactly where this domestication happened, the precise time period, or the exact reason dogs were domesticated, though during the domestication process, dogs started to give increased assistance to humans. One obstacle to understanding dog origins is that it can be hard to differentiate between dog and wolf remains. Scientists believe that the domestication of dogs happened in phases, with an initial phase consisting of wolves being drawn to human environments, and the next phase resulting in the slow creation of a relationship between humans and wolves. This process eventually led to dogs with tinier teeth, varying sizes, and smaller muzzles—effects of the progression of domestication and the intentional selection by humans of specific traits.

In one of the two studies, a group of scientists at the Natural History Museum in London created DNA sequences from dog genes found in England and dog bones from Turkey. The dog remains from England date back to 14,300 years ago and belonged to domesticated dogs. The dog bones from Turkey were 15,800 years old and were from a female domesticated dog. The researchers used radiocarbon dating, a process that involves calculating the amount of carbon-14 atoms in a specimen. When an organism dies, the carbon-14 that has entered its body turns into other atoms at a known rate, allowing scientists to figure out the age of a specimen. The dog genes from Turkey and England were alike, showing how dogs that were domesticated expanded throughout western Asia and Europe. The genes of the dogs were found to be more alike than those of the humans at each location, showing how a uniform dog species dispersed throughout Europe and Turkey, and giving evidence of the transfer of dogs among diverse human communities. The ice age humans living with dogs in England hunted on land, while the humans in Turkey fished and ate birds. Both groups took care of their dogs similarly, treating them in the same way as they would treat fellow humans. These two different communities both tended to their dogs’ corpses the same way as they did humans. In Turkey, the dogs were laid to rest on top of humans that passed away. On the other hand, in England, a dog skull was found to have ornamental punctures, similar to those found in human skulls. In both locations, the dogs consumed the same foods humans did, leading researchers to believe that the dogs and humans had a very strong connection.

In the other study, conducted by researchers at the Francis Crick Institute in London, a different dog dating from around 14,000 years ago was pinpointed using radiocarbon dating. In this study, the researchers captured DNA present in microorganisms on the specimens, which allowed them to distinguish between dogs and wolves in over 130 samples. The researchers captured single-nucleotide variants, an abnormality in a DNA sequence that happens if one nucleotide, a molecule that makes up DNA, is changed. They identified these variants in modern-day coyotes, wolves, and dogs and applied them to dog remains. This resulted in an enhancement of the DNA of the dog remains, allowing for specific single-nucleotide variants from the dog DNA to be isolated and then analyzed. Using this method, they found 14 dogs that resided with European hunter-gatherers, one of which was 14,200 years old and from Switzerland. The study showed that the most ancient dogs in Europe were of the same type that lived in regions such as Siberia and East Asia, and that these dogs all originated from the same ancestor, most likely from eastern as opposed to western Eurasia. The scientists discovered that these dogs’ genomes endured throughout time, even making their way into modern dog breeds of Europe, like German shepherds.

Each of the three dog remains from the two studies possesses similar DNA, with almost the same mitochondrial DNA. The dogs most likely belonged to one ice-age variety of dogs that was present in both Europe and the Middle East, a variety that had not been discovered before. The researchers at the Francis Crick Institute’s method of DNA-capture could allow for specimens that weren’t fully intact, and specimens that date from before the specimens analyzed in the studies, to be able to be analyzed.

These studies may be evidence of the earliest domesticated dogs emerging from Asia. A different study, published in Nature in 2022 by Anders Bergström et al., found that early and present-day dogs are more similar to wolves stemming from Asia rather than from Europe. The researchers from both studies noticed that the most ancient dogs from Europe were associated with wolves in Asia, but it is not known yet where in Asia dogs may have originated from. Though these studies help clarify aspects of dog origins, much is still to be discovered about the ancestry of our best friends.