Dog Days on the Plains: A Preliminary aDNA Analysis of Canid Bones from Southern Alberta and Saskatchewan

Abstract

Dogs were an important component of lifeways on the Northern Plains until the reintroduction of the horse following European contact. There has been little investigation into the variability of domestic

canids on the Prairies and the potential of that variability as a proxy for identifying relationships between culture-historic entities. Distinguishing between sympatric canids using morphological characteristics can be challenging with degraded specimens that have high intra-specific variability, and where wolf-dog hybridization can result in transitional morphologies. Here, we present preliminary ancient DNA data on archaeological canids recovered from FM Ranch (EfPk-1) and Cluny (EePf-1) in Alberta, as well as from

Lake Midden (EfNg-1) in Saskatchewan. Using the mitochondrial control region, we taxonomically reclassify zooarchaeological remains, find potential evidence of European dogs in a protocontact component, and identify preliminary indications of a distinct dog population at the Cluny site that may be

of interest for determining the origin of the One Gun phase.