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[The CIVIS Newsroom ](https://civis.eu/en/the-civis-newsroom) 2. World’s oldest genetic evidence for domestic dogs identified World’s oldest genetic evidence for domestic dogs identified ============================================================== CIVIS Highlights 6 April 2026 Dogs were already established as a distinct species during the Ice Age and were widespread across vast geographical areas. A new study co-led by Stockholm University and published in *Nature* provides the strongest genetic evidence to date that dogs were established as a species much earlier than previously thought, and that the relationship between humans and dogs has very deep roots in prehistory. ![](https://civis.eu/storage/files/dogs-su1.jpg)Reconstruction of 14,3000-year-old dog jawbone from Gough's Cave. © Tom Anders & LongleatScientists have known that dogs emerged from grey wolf populations and they suspected that the process took place around the last Ice Age. Evidence from pre-agricultural archaeological sites has been limited and difficult to confirm and previous studies have mostly used very short DNA sequences and skeletal measurements to evaluate the earliest presence of dogs in the archaeological record. In this new study - *‘Dogs were widely distributed across Western Eurasia during the Palaeolithic’*, [published in *Nature*](https://www.nature.com/articles/s41586-026-10170-x)*,* an international team of researchers recovered whole genomes from archaeological specimens older than 10,000 years excavated from Gough’s Cave in the UK, and Pınarbaşı in Turkey. They then compared the genomes with more than 1,000 modern and ancient dogs and wolves from across the world. True dogs, not wolves --------------------- Using ancient DNA analysis, researchers identified dogs at archaeological sites in the UK and Turkey dating to approximately 16,000–14,000 years ago, a time when all humans were hunter-gatherers and agriculture had not yet emerged. ![](https://civis.eu/storage/files/dogs-su.jpg)14,300-year-old dog jawbone from Gough´s Cave. © Trustees of the Natural History MuseumThe results from the study show that these animals were genetically true dogs, not wolves, and pushed back the earliest direct evidence for dogs by more than 5,000 years. But what role these dogs played in the communities remains unclear. The study suggests they may have been transferred between genetically and culturally distinct groups. Anna Linderholm, researcher at Stockholm University and co-author of the study, explains: > *The most striking thing is how genetically similar these dogs are, even though they lived in completely different parts of Europe and Turkey. This suggests that dogs already had a special social and cultural significance. And it is fascinating that we can trace a genetic lineage from Ice Age dogs all the way to modern breeds. It shows how long and deep the relationship between humans and dogs truly is. With every new set of genetic data we analyze, we get closer to answering how and why the dog became humanity’s first companion.* ### A close relationship However, the findings show that the relationship between humans and dogs was close. In Gough’s Cave, dog bones were treated in a similar way to human remains after death. In Turkey, young dogs were buried in the same area as humans. Isotope analyses also show that dogs and humans often ate similar food, indicating that dogs lived closely with humans and were likely fed by them. And *“these are not semi-tamed wolves on the outskirts of settlements, these are animals that are already part of human societies,”* concludes Anna Linderholm. These new DNA data revealed not only that the Gough’s Cave and Pınarbaşı individuals were dogs, but that they were more closely related to the ancestors of present-day European and Middle Eastern breeds, such as boxers and salukis, than to Arctic breeds like Siberian huskies. Read more in the [original story, in Swedish](https://www.su.se/nyheter/nyhetsartiklar/2026-03-26-hundar-levde-med-manniskor-over-hela-europa-redan-under-istiden). 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