Oldest-Known American Dog Found in Texas

By Kirsten Taylor |

January 21, 2011

While analyzing archaeological remains from Southwest Texas, a University of Maine graduate student has discovered evidence of the oldest-known dog in the Americas.

Samuel Belknap was studying ancient human waste to determine what residents of the Lower Pecos region of Texas ate between 1,000 and 10,000 years ago when he found a fingernail-size bit of bone. DNA analysis confirmed it belongs to a domestic dog that lived approximately 9,400 years ago, the Associated Press reports.

According to UCLA professor Robert Wayne, North America's first mutts are thought to have arrived with early settlers who crossed the Bering land bridge from Asia 10,000 years ago or more. Not much is known about our continent's early dogs, so Belknap's find was a lucky one.

Older dog remains have been discovered in other parts of the world, including some from 31,000 years ago unearthed in Belgium, Wayne told the AP. But Belknap's find is thought to be the oldest domestic dog yet discovered in the New World.