Chinese crested dog has American roots

Pity the Chinese crested dog, whose scrawny, wrinkly appearance has drawn guffaws for hundreds of years. But revenge is sweet: Scientists report that the breed is among just a handful descending from the first dogs to populate the Americas.

Dogs were domesticated 15,000 or more years ago, scientists now think, and they accompanied the first people who migrated from Asia to America more than 10,000 years ago. But those dogs seem to have disappeared when Europeans brought over their own dogs.

Geneticists recently found that several breeds — including the Chinese crested — share large chunks of DNA not found in other breeds. This DNA most likely comes from ancient American dogs, they said.

So the Chinese crested dog, despite its name, seems not to have come from Asia.

— The New York Times