狗从哪里来基因研究揭晓答案_时事_双语阅读-查字典英语网

狗从哪里来基因研究揭晓答案

Where do dogs come from?

狗是从哪里来的?

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。在这件事上，科学家们的意见相当一致。研究人员认为，狗的起源可以追溯到欧洲、近东、西伯利亚和中国南方。

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

对世界各地犬只进行的一项大型研究最新显示，狗最有可能的起源地是中亚。

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.

康奈尔大学(Cornell University)的劳拉·M·莎伦(Laura M. Shannon)和亚当·R·博伊科(Adam R. Boyko)与其他科学家一起，组成了一个国际研究小组。该小组不只调查纯种犬，也包括街上或乡村里的狗——全球共有十亿只狗，其中大约75%是自由来去的流浪狗。

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.