Where do dogs come from?

狗是從哪里來的?

Gray wolves are their ancestors. Scientists are pretty consistent about that. And researchershave suggested that dogs’ origins can be traced to Europe, the Near East, Siberia and SouthChina.

灰狼是狗的祖先。在這件事上，科學(xué)家們的意見相當(dāng)一致。研究人員認為，狗的起源可以追溯到歐洲、近東、西伯利亞和中國南方。

Central Asia is the newest and best candidate, according to a large study of dogs from aroundthe world.

對世界各地犬只進行的一項大型研究最新顯示，狗最有可能的起源地是中亞。

Laura M. Shannon and Adam R. Boyko at Cornell University, and an international group of otherscientists, studied not only purebred dogs, but also street or village dogs — the free-rangingscavengers that make up about 75 percent of the planet’s one billion dogs.

康奈爾大學(xué)(Cornell University)的勞拉·M·莎倫(Laura M. Shannon)和亞當(dāng)·R·博伊科(Adam R. Boyko)與其他科學(xué)家一起，組成了一個國際研究小組。該小組不只調(diào)查純種犬，也包括街上或鄉(xiāng)村里的狗——全球共有十億只狗，其中大約75%是自由來去的流浪狗。

Dr. Shannon analyzed three different kinds of DNA, Dr. Boyko said, the first time this has beendone for such a large and diverse group of dogs, more than 4,500 dogs of 161 breeds and549 village dogs from 38 countries. That allowed the researchers to determine whichgeographic groups of modern dogs were closest to ancestral populations genetically. And thatled them to Central Asia as the place of origin for dogs in much the same way that geneticstudies have located the origin of modern humans in East Africa.

莎倫博士分析了三種不同類型的DNA，博伊科博士說，這是第一次對如此眾多、如此多樣化的犬只進行研究，包括了161個品種的逾4500只狗，以及來自38個國家的549只鄉(xiāng)村狗。因此研究人員能夠分析出哪些現(xiàn)代犬只的地理群落在基因上最接近其祖先群體。基因研究確定了現(xiàn)代人類起源于東非，而他們也采用大致一樣的方式，確定了犬類的起源地是中亞。

The analysis, Dr. Boyko said, pointed to Central Asia, including Mongolia and Nepal, as theplace where “all the dogs alive today come from. The data did not allow precise dating of theorigin, he said, but showed it occurred at least 15,000 years ago. They reported their findingsMonday in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

博伊科博士說，分析顯示，包括蒙古和尼泊爾在內(nèi)的中亞地區(qū)是“目前所有尚存的犬種的來源地。他說這些數(shù)據(jù)不足以對起源進行精確測年，但從中可以看到是在至少1.5萬年前。本周一，他們的報告發(fā)表在《美國國家科學(xué)院院刊》(Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences)上。

Greger Larson of Oxford University, who is leading a large international effort to analyze ancientDNA from fossilized bones, said he was impressed by the scope of the study. “It’s really greatto see not just the sheer number of street dogs, but also the geographic breadth and thenumber of remote locations where the dogs were sampled, he said in an email. He also praisedthe sampling of different kinds of DNA and the analytic methods.

牛津大學(xué)的格雷格·拉爾森(Greger Larson)是一個大型國際項目的領(lǐng)導(dǎo)者，主持對骨化石中古代DNA的分析工作。拉爾森說這項犬只研究的規(guī)模給他留下了深刻的印象。“該研究涵蓋的流浪狗數(shù)目，以及采樣犬只所涉及的地域廣度和邊遠地區(qū)的數(shù)量，讓人覺得很了不起，他在一封電郵中說。他還稱贊了對不同種類DNA進行采樣的做法以及分析方法。

But in the world of dog studies, very little is definitive. The most recent common ancestor oftoday’s dogs lived in Central Asia, Dr. Boyko said, although he cannot rule out the possibilitythat some dogs could have been domesticated elsewhere and died out. Or dogs domesticatedelsewhere could have gone to Central Asia from somewhere else and then diversified into all thecanines alive today, he said.

但在犬類研究領(lǐng)域，很少有研究是確定的。博伊科博士表示，現(xiàn)存犬種的最近共祖生活在中亞地區(qū)，但他無法排除一些犬只可能在其他地方受到馴化并滅絕的可能性。他表示，或者在其他地方經(jīng)過馴化的犬只從別的地方來到中亞，然后經(jīng)過多樣化發(fā)展，演化成現(xiàn)存的所有犬種。

Dr. Larson, who was not involved with the study, said he thought the Central Asia findingrequired further testing. He said he suspected that the origins of modern dogs were“extremely messy and that no amount of sampling of living populations will be definitive. Hesaid a combination of studies of modern and ancient DNA is necessary.

沒有參與這項研究的拉爾森表示，他認為起源于中亞的結(jié)果需要進一步的檢驗。他認為現(xiàn)代犬只的起源“非常混亂，即使對再多的現(xiàn)存犬只取樣也無法確定。他表示，需要把對現(xiàn)代及古代DNA的研究結(jié)合起來。

Dr. Boyko said the new research for the first time analyzed three sources of DNA from bothpurebred and village dogs worldwide. The team analyzed DNA from all the chromosomes in thecell nucleus, from the Y chromosome specifically, found only in males, and from mitochondria,cellular energy machines outside the nucleus that are inherited from the mother.

博伊科博士表示，新研究首次分析了世界各地的純種狗和鄉(xiāng)村狗的三種DNA。該團隊分析了細胞核的所有染色體、只有公犬?dāng)y帶的Y染色體及線粒體的DNA，線粒體是位于遺傳自母體的細胞核外的細胞能量制造結(jié)構(gòu)。

Dr. Boyko traveled to a number of the locations where blood was drawn from village dogs. Hesaid, “The great thing about working with dogs is that if you show up with food you don’tusually have trouble recruiting subjects. Usually.

博伊科博士走訪了很多鄉(xiāng)村狗的采血點。他表示，“與狗一起工作最棒的一點就是，如果你拿著食物，征召狗作為實驗對象通常不會遇到困難。通常是這樣。

He added: “We showed up in Puerto Rico at a fishing village and the dogs turned up theirnoses at roast beef sandwiches. They were used to eating fish entrails.

他還表示，“我們?nèi)チ瞬ǘ嗬韪鞯囊粋€漁村，那里的狗過來嗅烤牛肉三明治。它們通常吃魚內(nèi)臟。

Where do dogs come from?

狗是從哪里來的?

Gray wolves are their ancestors. Scientists are pretty consistent about that. And researchershave suggested that dogs’ origins can be traced to Europe, the Near East, Siberia and SouthChina.

灰狼是狗的祖先。在這件事上，科學(xué)家們的意見相當(dāng)一致。研究人員認為，狗的起源可以追溯到歐洲、近東、西伯利亞和中國南方。

Central Asia is the newest and best candidate, according to a large study of dogs from aroundthe world.

對世界各地犬只進行的一項大型研究最新顯示，狗最有可能的起源地是中亞。

Laura M. Shannon and Adam R. Boyko at Cornell University, and an international group of otherscientists, studied not only purebred dogs, but also street or village dogs — the free-rangingscavengers that make up about 75 percent of the planet’s one billion dogs.

康奈爾大學(xué)(Cornell University)的勞拉·M·莎倫(Laura M. Shannon)和亞當(dāng)·R·博伊科(Adam R. Boyko)與其他科學(xué)家一起，組成了一個國際研究小組。該小組不只調(diào)查純種犬，也包括街上或鄉(xiāng)村里的狗——全球共有十億只狗，其中大約75%是自由來去的流浪狗。

Dr. Shannon analyzed three different kinds of DNA, Dr. Boyko said, the first time this has beendone for such a large and diverse group of dogs, more than 4,500 dogs of 161 breeds and549 village dogs from 38 countries. That allowed the researchers to determine whichgeographic groups of modern dogs were closest to ancestral populations genetically. And thatled them to Central Asia as the place of origin for dogs in much the same way that geneticstudies have located the origin of modern humans in East Africa.

莎倫博士分析了三種不同類型的DNA，博伊科博士說，這是第一次對如此眾多、如此多樣化的犬只進行研究，包括了161個品種的逾4500只狗，以及來自38個國家的549只鄉(xiāng)村狗。因此研究人員能夠分析出哪些現(xiàn)代犬只的地理群落在基因上最接近其祖先群體。基因研究確定了現(xiàn)代人類起源于東非，而他們也采用大致一樣的方式，確定了犬類的起源地是中亞。

The analysis, Dr. Boyko said, pointed to Central Asia, including Mongolia and Nepal, as theplace where “all the dogs alive today come from. The data did not allow precise dating of theorigin, he said, but showed it occurred at least 15,000 years ago. They reported their findingsMonday in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

博伊科博士說，分析顯示，包括蒙古和尼泊爾在內(nèi)的中亞地區(qū)是“目前所有尚存的犬種的來源地。他說這些數(shù)據(jù)不足以對起源進行精確測年，但從中可以看到是在至少1.5萬年前。本周一，他們的報告發(fā)表在《美國國家科學(xué)院院刊》(Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences)上。

Greger Larson of Oxford University, who is leading a large international effort to analyze ancientDNA from fossilized bones, said he was impressed by the scope of the study. “It’s really greatto see not just the sheer number of street dogs, but also the geographic breadth and thenumber of remote locations where the dogs were sampled, he said in an email. He also praisedthe sampling of different kinds of DNA and the analytic methods.

牛津大學(xué)的格雷格·拉爾森(Greger Larson)是一個大型國際項目的領(lǐng)導(dǎo)者，主持對骨化石中古代DNA的分析工作。拉爾森說這項犬只研究的規(guī)模給他留下了深刻的印象。“該研究涵蓋的流浪狗數(shù)目，以及采樣犬只所涉及的地域廣度和邊遠地區(qū)的數(shù)量，讓人覺得很了不起，他在一封電郵中說。他還稱贊了對不同種類DNA進行采樣的做法以及分析方法。

But in the world of dog studies, very little is definitive. The most recent common ancestor oftoday’s dogs lived in Central Asia, Dr. Boyko said, although he cannot rule out the possibilitythat some dogs could have been domesticated elsewhere and died out. Or dogs domesticatedelsewhere could have gone to Central Asia from somewhere else and then diversified into all thecanines alive today, he said.

但在犬類研究領(lǐng)域，很少有研究是確定的。博伊科博士表示，現(xiàn)存犬種的最近共祖生活在中亞地區(qū)，但他無法排除一些犬只可能在其他地方受到馴化并滅絕的可能性。他表示，或者在其他地方經(jīng)過馴化的犬只從別的地方來到中亞，然后經(jīng)過多樣化發(fā)展，演化成現(xiàn)存的所有犬種。

Dr. Larson, who was not involved with the study, said he thought the Central Asia findingrequired further testing. He said he suspected that the origins of modern dogs were“extremely messy and that no amount of sampling of living populations will be definitive. Hesaid a combination of studies of modern and ancient DNA is necessary.

沒有參與這項研究的拉爾森表示，他認為起源于中亞的結(jié)果需要進一步的檢驗。他認為現(xiàn)代犬只的起源“非常混亂，即使對再多的現(xiàn)存犬只取樣也無法確定。他表示，需要把對現(xiàn)代及古代DNA的研究結(jié)合起來。

Dr. Boyko said the new research for the first time analyzed three sources of DNA from bothpurebred and village dogs worldwide. The team analyzed DNA from all the chromosomes in thecell nucleus, from the Y chromosome specifically, found only in males, and from mitochondria,cellular energy machines outside the nucleus that are inherited from the mother.

博伊科博士表示，新研究首次分析了世界各地的純種狗和鄉(xiāng)村狗的三種DNA。該團隊分析了細胞核的所有染色體、只有公犬?dāng)y帶的Y染色體及線粒體的DNA，線粒體是位于遺傳自母體的細胞核外的細胞能量制造結(jié)構(gòu)。

Dr. Boyko traveled to a number of the locations where blood was drawn from village dogs. Hesaid, “The great thing about working with dogs is that if you show up with food you don’tusually have trouble recruiting subjects. Usually.

博伊科博士走訪了很多鄉(xiāng)村狗的采血點。他表示，“與狗一起工作最棒的一點就是，如果你拿著食物，征召狗作為實驗對象通常不會遇到困難。通常是這樣。

He added: “We showed up in Puerto Rico at a fishing village and the dogs turned up theirnoses at roast beef sandwiches. They were used to eating fish entrails.

他還表示，“我們?nèi)チ瞬ǘ嗬韪鞯囊粋€漁村，那里的狗過來嗅烤牛肉三明治。它們通常吃魚內(nèi)臟。