Man's Best Friend Meets Dna Testing
The Pharaoh hound is a noble breed. Depicted on the walls of Egyptian tombs, it's thought to have been man's best friend for 2,000 years, even when dogs were more like wolves than the docile creatures we know today. There's just one problem. According to a new genetic study of 85 dog breeds, the pharaoh hound was bred not in the first century but the 19th, possibly by breeders trying to emulate dogs from ancient times. In other words, it's a fake.
The American Kennel Club participated in the study, helping scientists get DNA samples from more than 400 dogs. But that doesn't mean all dog lovers are welcoming the new evidence. For breeders, the pharaoh-hound findings are a particularly nasty surprise, like looking under a supposed 18th-century armoire and discovering the mark of Pottery Barn. "I wasn't there 2,000 years ago, so I'm not going to dispute the study," says Jodi Lewis of Leavenworth, Kans., who owns nine pharaoh hounds. "But it's like talking about politics or religion--you have your beliefs, and I have mine."
Still, the study isn't all bad news for breeders. For one thing, it proves they know what they're doing: although they've been at work for only 150-odd years, they've managed to breed lines that have highly distinct genetic signatures. In other words, purebreds really are special. The study has more surprises in store, too. As it turns out, the wrinkly Shar-Pei and the stately Afghan are closely related--and although neither looks much like a wolf, both are closely related to their lupine ancestors. As for the poor pharaoh hound, head researcher Leonid Kruglyak says he "hopes nobody will be too upset." Terriers date back only to the 1800s and, he notes, "people still seem to like them."
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Mary Carmichael was named General Editor in January 2007 after six years with Newsweek. She writes primarily for the Health, Science, and Society sections of the magazine. Previously, she was an assistant editor since 2003, contributing to the Science and Technology, Society and Tip Sheet sections of the magazine. She came to Newsweek in June 2001 as an intern for the Periscope section.
In her time at Newsweek, Carmichael has written three cover stories and contributed to many more. She also reported on-site from Ground Zero on September 11. She studied statistics with the Weidenbaum Center in 2006 and was a Journalism Fellow at the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution in 2003. She is also the co-author of the books "In the Beginning" and "Med School in a Box," and writes regularly for the Boston Globe Sunday magazine and other publications.
Carmichael has also worked as the producer of The Infinite Mind on National Public Radio, as an associate web producer of Frontline, as editor-in-chief for special projects for mental_floss magazine, and as a reporter for the St. Petersburg Times and the News & Observer of Raleigh. She graduated from Duke University with a B.A. in biological anthropology and public policy and completed a year of graduate work in psychology and anthropology at Columbia University.
She lives in Boston.
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