Maraaz 
A team of international scientists revealed that the first people to settle in America about 15,000 years ago came from Northeast Asia and brought their dogs with them. Accordingly, the natives first traveled to Eurasia and then to the American continent. The study’s findings also show that dogs were first domesticated in Siberia 23,000 years ago as a result of the harsh climatic conditions of the region.
As part of the study, scientists analyzed the archaeological and genetic records of humans and dogs thousands of years ago. The results showed that the first people to settle in the American continent crossed the sea bridge known as Beringia, which connected Canada and Russia.
However, the data showed that a people called Northern Siberians might be the first to domesticate wolves by feeding them with food leftovers.
“Researchers have previously suggested that dogs were domesticated in many places from Eurasia to Europe, from China to Mesopotamia,” said Professor Greger Larson of Oxford University, who is the co-author of the study. But the combined evidence from ancient human and dog fossils is helping us improve our understanding of the deep history of dogs and now points to Siberia and Northeast Asia, a possible region where the domestication of dogs was initiated, ” said.
Research lead author Dr Angela Perri, from the Department of Archeology at Durham University, said, “Dog domestication in Siberia answers many of the questions we have always had about the origins of the human-dog relationship. Archeology brings together pieces of genetics and time, making dogs in Siberia for the first time. “We see a much clearer picture of how it was domesticated and spread from there to America and all over the world.
On the other hand, the researchers reported that the Bering Strait and Siberia had extremely cold, dry weather and largely ice-free during the Last Glacial Maximum period between 23,000 and 19,000 years ago.
“We have long known that the first Americans had advanced hunting skills and a good knowledge of geology to find stones and other necessary materials,” said David Meltzer, co-author and archaeologist from Southern Methodist University. “The harsh natural conditions in Siberia and the dogs accompanying them prepared them greatly for the new world.”
