2,000-Year-Old Dog DNA Reveals Unique Korean Dog Population

Excavated canine bones from the Korean Peninsula. Credit: Hyeongcheol Kim et al. / CC BY 4.0

Researchers person sequenced the implicit DNA genome of past dogs from the Korean Peninsula for the archetypal time, revealing a chiseled 2,000-year-old lineage successful Korea. The Korea Heritage Service announced the findings connected Thursday. The survey was published successful the planetary diary PLOS ONE.

A associated probe squad studied canine remains from 2 archaeological sites successful South Korea. The remains came from the Neukdo tract successful Sacheon and the Bonghwang-dong tract successful Gimhae.

The squad included researchers from the Gaya National Research Institute of Cultural Heritage, the Conservation Science Division of the National Research Institute of Cultural Heritage, the Seokdang Museum of Dong-A University, and Japan’s Graduate University for Advanced Studies.

Four past dogs studied

The researchers analyzed the remains of 4 dogs that lived astir 2,000 years ago. They utilized next-generation sequencing exertion to rebuild the animals’ implicit genomes.

The enactment took spot successful a dedicated past DNA cleanroom astatine the Conservation Science Division of the National Research Institute of Cultural Heritage.

The results springiness scientists 1 of the clearest familial looks yet astatine ancient dogs from Korea. They besides amusement that aboriginal canine populations successful East Asia were much divers than researchers erstwhile believed.

A abstracted Korean lineage

The past Korean dogs were genetically closest to the Australian dingo and the New Guinea singing dog. But they did not beryllium to either group.

Researchers person sequenced past canine DNA from the Korean Peninsula for the archetypal time, revealing a chiseled 2,000-year-old Korean canine lineage. pic.twitter.com/2rMADLGP8U

— Tom Marvolo Riddle (@tom_riddle2025) May 7, 2026

Instead, the dogs formed their ain chiseled lineage. That uncovering challenges the earlier presumption that East Asian dogs came from 1 wide population.

The survey suggests past East Asia had respective abstracted canine lineages. Korea’s dogs were portion of that wider familial diversity.

Western genes entered later

Researchers besides recovered traces of Western Eurasian canine ancestry successful the past Korean specimens. The stock of those genes accrued successful dogs from aboriginal periods.

The signifier suggests canine populations from Eastern and Western Eurasia mixed implicit thousands of years. Such familial speech whitethorn person followed the question of people, goods, and animals crossed regions.

Modern Korean breeds besides transportation this history. Native breeds specified arsenic the Jindo and Sapsaree person much Western lineage ancestry than the past dogs successful the study.

Wolf links adhd different layer

The study besides recovered grounds of cistron travel betwixt past Korean dogs and wolves. The strongest nexus appeared with the Japanese wolf, a subspecies considered extinct since 1905.

That transportation suggests past dogs successful Korea whitethorn person interacted with adjacent wolf populations during their development.

The Gaya National Research Institute of Cultural Heritage said it plans to survey much Neolithic canine genomes. Researchers anticipation that the enactment volition assistance hint the enactment of the Korean Peninsula’s canine lineage to an adjacent earlier period.