Dogs were introduced to North America during the early peopling of the continent. But to date, it is unclear when dogs reached Central and South America. In this paper, researchers produced and analysed 70 mitochondrial genomes that shed new light on the timing of dog introduction to Central and South America. They show that dogs likely spread South with the development of agriculture and the spread of maize in South America between 7,000 and 5,000 years ago. They also identify the arrival of new lineages of dogs with the European colonisation and their legacy in modern village dogs.
Read the article in Proceedings B:
https://royalsocietypublishing.org/…/10…/rspb.2024.2443
I would have guessed earlier.