Data from: Dogs accompanied humans during the Neolithic expansion into Europe

Near Eastern Neolithic farmers introduced several species of domestic
plants and animals as they dispersed into Europe. Dogs were the only
domestic species present in both Europe and the Near East prior to the
Neolithic. Here, we assessed whether early Near Eastern dogs possessed a
unique mitochondrial lineage that differentiated them from Mesolithic
European populations. We then analysed mitochondrial DNA sequences from 99
ancient European and Near-Eastern dogs spanning the Upper Palaeolithic to
the Bronze Age to assess if incoming farmers brought Near Eastern dogs
with them, or instead primarily adopted indigenous European dogs after
they arrived. Our results show that European pre-Neolithic dogs all
possessed the mitochondrial haplogroup C, and that the Neolithic and
Post-Neolithic dogs associated with farmers from Southeastern Europe
mainly possessed haplogroup D. Thus, the appearance of haplogroup D most
likely resulted from the dissemination of dogs from the Near East into
Europe. In Western and Northern Europe, the turnover is incomplete and C
haplogroup persists well into the Chalcolithic at least. These results
suggest that dogs were an integral component of the Neolithic farming
package and a mitochondrial lineage associated with the Near East was
introduced into Europe alongside pigs, cows, sheep, and goats. It got
diluted into the native dog population when reaching the Western and
Northern margins of Europe.