Dogs were widely distributed across western Eurasia during the Palaeolithic

William A. Marsh; Lachie Scarsbrook; Eren Yüncü; Lizzie Hodgson; Audrey T. Lin; Maria De Iorio; Olaf Thalmann; Mark G. Thomas; Mahaut Goor; Anders Bergström; Angela Noseda; Sarieh Amiri; Fereidoun Biglari; Dušan Borić; Katia Bougiouri; Alberto Carmagnini; Maddalena Giannì; Tom Higham; Ophelie Lebrasseur; Anna Linderholm; Marcello A. Mannino; Caroline Middleton; Gökhan Mustafaoğlu; Angela Perri; Joris Peters; Mike Richards; Özlem Sarıtaş; Pontus Skoglund; Rhiannon E. Stevens; Chris Stringer; Kristina Tabbada; Helen M. Talbot; Laura G. Van der Sluis; Silvia M. Bello; Vesna Dimitrijevic; Louise Martin; Marjan Mashkour; Simon A. Parfitt; Sonja Vukovic; Selina Brace; Oliver E. Craig; Douglas Baird; Sophy Charlton; Greger Larson; Ian Barnes; Laurent A.F. Frantz

doi:10.1038/s41586-026-10170-x

Dogs were widely distributed across western Eurasia during the Palaeolithic

William A. Marsh (Corresponding author)
, Lachie Scarsbrook (Corresponding author)
, Eren Yüncü
, Lizzie Hodgson
, Audrey T. Lin
, Maria De Iorio
, Olaf Thalmann
, Mark G. Thomas
, Mahaut Goor
, Anders Bergström
, Angela Noseda
, Sarieh Amiri
, Fereidoun Biglari
, Dušan Borić
, Katia Bougiouri
, Alberto Carmagnini
, Maddalena Giannì
, Tom Higham
, Ophelie Lebrasseur
, Anna Linderholm

Marcello A. Mannino, Caroline Middleton, Gökhan Mustafaoğlu, Angela Perri, Joris Peters, Mike Richards, Özlem Sarıtaş, Pontus Skoglund, Rhiannon E. Stevens, Chris Stringer, Kristina Tabbada, Helen M. Talbot, Laura G. Van der Sluis, Silvia M. Bello, Vesna Dimitrijevic, Louise Martin, Marjan Mashkour, Simon A. Parfitt, Sonja Vukovic, Selina Brace, Oliver E. Craig, Douglas Baird, Sophy Charlton, Greger Larson (Corresponding author), Ian Barnes (Corresponding author), Laurent A.F. Frantz (Corresponding author)

Publications: Contribution to journal › Article › Peer Reviewed

Abstract

Archaeological evidence suggests that dogs diverged from wolves during the Palaeolithic, more than 15,000 years ago^{1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6–7}. The earliest unequivocal genetic evidence, however, is associated with dog remains from Mesolithic archaeological contexts approximately 10,900 years ago^8,9. Here we generate both nuclear and mitochondrial genomes from canid remains at Pınarbaşı in Türkiye (15,800 years ago)¹⁰ and Gough’s Cave in the UK (14,300 years ago)¹¹, as well as from dogs excavated from two Mesolithic sites in Serbia (Padina between 11,500–7,900 years ago and Vlasac 8,900 years ago)^12,13. Our analyses indicate that a genetically homogeneous dog population was already widely distributed across Europe and Anatolia during the Late Upper Palaeolithic (by at least 14,300 years ago). This finding suggests that dogs were exchanged among genetically and culturally distinct western Eurasian Late Palaeolithic human populations, namely the Magdalenian, Epigravettian and Anatolian hunter-gatherers^{10,14, 15–16}. Last, we identify a major influx of eastern Eurasian dog ancestry during the Mesolithic, concomitant with the movement of eastern hunter-gatherer populations into Europe¹⁴, which led to the establishment of the primary ancestry characteristics that define European dog populations today.

Original language	English
Pages (from-to)	995-1003
Number of pages	9
Journal	Nature
Volume	651
Issue number	8107
DOIs	https://doi.org/10.1038/s41586-026-10170-x
Publication status	Published - 26 Mar 2026

Funding

We thank the Calleva Foundation for funding the work of W.A.M., S.B., S.M.B., I.B., S.A.P. and C.S. at the Natural History Museum (NHM) (London). We thank the curators (in particular R. Pappa, R. Ives and E. Tilby) at the NHM for their assistance accessing specimens, the NHM Trustees for granting image permissions, and to the Longleat Estate for their long-term loan of the Gough’s Cave Palaeolithic assemblage. We thank the Bioarchaeology Laboratory, Central Laboratory, University of Tehran for access to and curation of material from Wezmeh Cave. We acknowledge R. Grifoni Cremonesi for her contribution as director of excavations at Grotte Continenza. We also thank the National Environmental Isotope Facility for funding radiocarbon dating of Pınarbaşı material (NF/2016/2/4). L.A.F.F. and L.S. were supported by the German Research Foundation (DFG; grant no. 524207393). L.A.F.F., G.L. and O.L. were supported by European Research Council grants (nos ERC-2013-StG-337574-UNDEAD and ERC-2019-StG-853272-PALAEOFARM) and Natural Environmental Research Council grants (nos NE/K005243/1 and NE/K003259/1). G.L. was supported by Brasenose College, Oxford. L.S. was supported by Merton and Somerville Colleges, Oxford. M.G.T. was supported by European Research Council grants (nos 951385-COREX, 865515-SUSTAIN, 324202-NeoMilk and 788616-YMPACT), a Wellcome Senior Research Fellowship grant (no. 100719/Z/12/Z) and a Natural Environmental Research Council grant (no. NE/X01469X/1). High-performance computing was performed on the BioHPC (DFG INST 86/2050-1 FUGG) and Linux-Cluster of the Leibniz Supercomputing Centre (LRZ Munich), the Smithsonian High-Performance Computing Cluster (Smithsonian Institution), the NHM internal HPC cluster and the CropDiversity HPC (James Hutton Institute).

Austrian Fields of Science 2012

106018 Human biology

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Marsh, W. A., Scarsbrook, L., Yüncü, E., Hodgson, L., Lin, A. T., De Iorio, M., Thalmann, O., Thomas, M. G., Goor, M., Bergström, A., Noseda, A., Amiri, S., Biglari, F., Borić, D., Bougiouri, K., Carmagnini, A., Giannì, M., Higham, T., Lebrasseur, O., ... Frantz, L. A. F. (2026). Dogs were widely distributed across western Eurasia during the Palaeolithic. Nature, 651(8107), 995-1003. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41586-026-10170-x

@article{d9ac436b61c14746945a921afaa3b514,

title = "Dogs were widely distributed across western Eurasia during the Palaeolithic",

abstract = "Archaeological evidence suggests that dogs diverged from wolves during the Palaeolithic, more than 15,000 years ago1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6–7. The earliest unequivocal genetic evidence, however, is associated with dog remains from Mesolithic archaeological contexts approximately 10,900 years ago8,9. Here we generate both nuclear and mitochondrial genomes from canid remains at Pınarba{\c s}ı in T{\"u}rkiye (15,800 years ago)10 and Gough{\textquoteright}s Cave in the UK (14,300 years ago)11, as well as from dogs excavated from two Mesolithic sites in Serbia (Padina between 11,500–7,900 years ago and Vlasac 8,900 years ago)12,13. Our analyses indicate that a genetically homogeneous dog population was already widely distributed across Europe and Anatolia during the Late Upper Palaeolithic (by at least 14,300 years ago). This finding suggests that dogs were exchanged among genetically and culturally distinct western Eurasian Late Palaeolithic human populations, namely the Magdalenian, Epigravettian and Anatolian hunter-gatherers10,14, 15–16. Last, we identify a major influx of eastern Eurasian dog ancestry during the Mesolithic, concomitant with the movement of eastern hunter-gatherer populations into Europe14, which led to the establishment of the primary ancestry characteristics that define European dog populations today.",

author = "Marsh, \{William A.\} and Lachie Scarsbrook and Eren Y{\"u}nc{\"u} and Lizzie Hodgson and Lin, \{Audrey T.\} and \{De Iorio\}, Maria and Olaf Thalmann and Thomas, \{Mark G.\} and Mahaut Goor and Anders Bergstr{\"o}m and Angela Noseda and Sarieh Amiri and Fereidoun Biglari and Du{\v s}an Bori{\'c} and Katia Bougiouri and Alberto Carmagnini and Maddalena Giann{\`i} and Tom Higham and Ophelie Lebrasseur and Anna Linderholm and Mannino, \{Marcello A.\} and Caroline Middleton and G{\"o}khan Mustafaoğlu and Angela Perri and Joris Peters and Mike Richards and {\"O}zlem Sarıta{\c s} and Pontus Skoglund and Stevens, \{Rhiannon E.\} and Chris Stringer and Kristina Tabbada and Talbot, \{Helen M.\} and \{Van der Sluis\}, \{Laura G.\} and Bello, \{Silvia M.\} and Vesna Dimitrijevic and Louise Martin and Marjan Mashkour and Parfitt, \{Simon A.\} and Sonja Vukovic and Selina Brace and Craig, \{Oliver E.\} and Douglas Baird and Sophy Charlton and Greger Larson and Ian Barnes and Frantz, \{Laurent A.F.\}",

note = "Publisher Copyright: {\textcopyright} The Author(s) 2026.",

year = "2026",

month = mar,

day = "26",

doi = "10.1038/s41586-026-10170-x",

language = "English",

volume = "651",

pages = "995--1003",

journal = "Nature",

issn = "0028-0836",

publisher = "NATURE PUBLISHING GROUP",

number = "8107",

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Marsh, WA, Scarsbrook, L, Yüncü, E, Hodgson, L, Lin, AT, De Iorio, M, Thalmann, O, Thomas, MG, Goor, M, Bergström, A, Noseda, A, Amiri, S, Biglari, F, Borić, D, Bougiouri, K, Carmagnini, A, Giannì, M, Higham, T, Lebrasseur, O, Linderholm, A, Mannino, MA, Middleton, C, Mustafaoğlu, G, Perri, A, Peters, J, Richards, M, Sarıtaş, Ö, Skoglund, P, Stevens, RE, Stringer, C, Tabbada, K, Talbot, HM, Van der Sluis, LG, Bello, SM, Dimitrijevic, V, Martin, L, Mashkour, M, Parfitt, SA, Vukovic, S, Brace, S, Craig, OE, Baird, D, Charlton, S, Larson, G, Barnes, I & Frantz, LAF 2026, 'Dogs were widely distributed across western Eurasia during the Palaeolithic', Nature, vol. 651, no. 8107, pp. 995-1003. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41586-026-10170-x

TY - JOUR

T1 - Dogs were widely distributed across western Eurasia during the Palaeolithic

AU - Marsh, William A.

AU - Scarsbrook, Lachie

AU - Yüncü, Eren

AU - Hodgson, Lizzie

AU - Lin, Audrey T.

AU - De Iorio, Maria

AU - Thalmann, Olaf

AU - Thomas, Mark G.

AU - Goor, Mahaut

AU - Bergström, Anders

AU - Noseda, Angela

AU - Amiri, Sarieh

AU - Biglari, Fereidoun

AU - Borić, Dušan

AU - Bougiouri, Katia

AU - Carmagnini, Alberto

AU - Giannì, Maddalena

AU - Higham, Tom

AU - Lebrasseur, Ophelie

AU - Linderholm, Anna

AU - Mannino, Marcello A.

AU - Middleton, Caroline

AU - Mustafaoğlu, Gökhan

AU - Perri, Angela

AU - Peters, Joris

AU - Richards, Mike

AU - Sarıtaş, Özlem

AU - Skoglund, Pontus

AU - Stevens, Rhiannon E.

AU - Stringer, Chris

AU - Tabbada, Kristina

AU - Talbot, Helen M.

AU - Van der Sluis, Laura G.

AU - Bello, Silvia M.

AU - Dimitrijevic, Vesna

AU - Martin, Louise

AU - Mashkour, Marjan

AU - Parfitt, Simon A.

AU - Vukovic, Sonja

AU - Brace, Selina

AU - Craig, Oliver E.

AU - Baird, Douglas

AU - Charlton, Sophy

AU - Larson, Greger

AU - Barnes, Ian

AU - Frantz, Laurent A.F.

PY - 2026/3/26

Y1 - 2026/3/26

N2 - Archaeological evidence suggests that dogs diverged from wolves during the Palaeolithic, more than 15,000 years ago1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6–7. The earliest unequivocal genetic evidence, however, is associated with dog remains from Mesolithic archaeological contexts approximately 10,900 years ago8,9. Here we generate both nuclear and mitochondrial genomes from canid remains at Pınarbaşı in Türkiye (15,800 years ago)10 and Gough’s Cave in the UK (14,300 years ago)11, as well as from dogs excavated from two Mesolithic sites in Serbia (Padina between 11,500–7,900 years ago and Vlasac 8,900 years ago)12,13. Our analyses indicate that a genetically homogeneous dog population was already widely distributed across Europe and Anatolia during the Late Upper Palaeolithic (by at least 14,300 years ago). This finding suggests that dogs were exchanged among genetically and culturally distinct western Eurasian Late Palaeolithic human populations, namely the Magdalenian, Epigravettian and Anatolian hunter-gatherers10,14, 15–16. Last, we identify a major influx of eastern Eurasian dog ancestry during the Mesolithic, concomitant with the movement of eastern hunter-gatherer populations into Europe14, which led to the establishment of the primary ancestry characteristics that define European dog populations today.

AB - Archaeological evidence suggests that dogs diverged from wolves during the Palaeolithic, more than 15,000 years ago1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6–7. The earliest unequivocal genetic evidence, however, is associated with dog remains from Mesolithic archaeological contexts approximately 10,900 years ago8,9. Here we generate both nuclear and mitochondrial genomes from canid remains at Pınarbaşı in Türkiye (15,800 years ago)10 and Gough’s Cave in the UK (14,300 years ago)11, as well as from dogs excavated from two Mesolithic sites in Serbia (Padina between 11,500–7,900 years ago and Vlasac 8,900 years ago)12,13. Our analyses indicate that a genetically homogeneous dog population was already widely distributed across Europe and Anatolia during the Late Upper Palaeolithic (by at least 14,300 years ago). This finding suggests that dogs were exchanged among genetically and culturally distinct western Eurasian Late Palaeolithic human populations, namely the Magdalenian, Epigravettian and Anatolian hunter-gatherers10,14, 15–16. Last, we identify a major influx of eastern Eurasian dog ancestry during the Mesolithic, concomitant with the movement of eastern hunter-gatherer populations into Europe14, which led to the establishment of the primary ancestry characteristics that define European dog populations today.

UR - https://www.scopus.com/pages/publications/105034363864

U2 - 10.1038/s41586-026-10170-x

DO - 10.1038/s41586-026-10170-x

M3 - Article

C2 - 41882128

AN - SCOPUS:105034363864

SN - 0028-0836

VL - 651

SP - 995

EP - 1003

JO - Nature

JF - Nature

IS - 8107

ER -

Dogs were widely distributed across western Eurasia during the Palaeolithic

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Funding

Austrian Fields of Science 2012

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