Scientists Find Coyote DNA Hiding in the Chihuahua Family Tree

Chihuahuas may fit comfortably into a lap, but their family history reaches into a much wilder corner of North America. A new genetic study has uncovered shared genomic segments between Chihuahuas and coyotes, adding a fascinating chapter to the story of one of the world’s smallest dog breeds. The discovery does not mean that today’s Chihuahua is simply part coyote. Instead, it points to ancient genetic connections that endured for generations, offering researchers another glimpse into the complex ancestry of dogs that lived in the Americas long before modern breeds took shape. The findings were reported in Nature Communications as part of research focused on new methods for studying ancestry through DNA. Researchers used software called Gnomix and Gnofix to examine genomic data and identify where different sections of an animal’s genetic material may have originated. DNA acts as a biological record passed from one generation to the next. Over long periods of time, mutations, interbreeding, and population changes leave patterns behind, allowing scientists to reconstruct portions of an animal’s evolutionary history. Reading that history, however, is enormously complicated. Modern co...