Research
Published:
Changes in dog morphology throughout time
Dogs have existed for 40,000-20,000 years. but most of the modern dog breeds we know and love today were created within the last 500 - 400 years. This leaves a tremendously large gap in our knowledge about the human relationship with dogs. How did humans thousands of years ago manage their dogs? How did this management affect dog morphology? I have collected osteometric and 3D data of North American dogs spanning 10,000 years of time to investigate how geography and culture affects differences in dog body size and shape.
Genetic history of European dogs in the Americas
Recent genetic studies have found that many dog lineages that have been in the Americas for over 10,000 years no longer exist today. This substantial loss of dog ancestry has been attributed to European colonization of the Americas, but it is unclear when European dogs replaced indigenous American dogs and the degree to which these dogs were allowed to interbreed with each other. My work seeks to clarify this replacement using ancient DNA from archaeological dogs at early colonial sites. Unfortunately, not every dog breed ever created still exists. Major world conflicts of the last century, like World War I and World War II, had more than human casualties - dogs were also affected. In the years since, breeding has become more intensive and some breeds had to be recreated after the original breed was lost. Therefore, colonial dogs may represent a different population of dogs that is not genetically represented in modern times. I am also using DNA analysis to estimate if there is genetic continuity between early colonial dogs and contemporary breeds.
2022 American Association of Biological Anthropologists Poster
2022 American Association of Biological Anthropology Supplementary Material
2022 Society of American Archaeologists Poster
2022 Society of American Archaeologists Supplementary Material
Linking genetic variation to dog physical and disease phenotypes in dogs.
Extreme selective breeding of dogs over the past 200 hundreds and led to an incredible amount of physical diversity in dog breeds. It is possible to leverage this knowledge to identify candidate variants that are potentially associated with specific physical characteristics and rare diseases.