Animals as Fellow Travellers

'Viking mouse' invasion tracked, BBC noticed this week
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/7645908.stm
"What this suggests to us is that the Norwegian Vikings were taking these mice around and they were taking a particular genetic type; because there are all sorts of genetic types and the particular type that happened to be where the first Vikings picked them up is the one that got spread around."

Geneticists could also track the supposed "Alan's dog"

The Spanish Alano today is a legacy of the Alan tribe which entered the Iberian Peninsula with the Vandal hordes during the early part of the 5th Century. The Alani were one of the Sarmatian peoples which inhabited the plains along the River Don to the northeast of the Sea of Azov in modern-day Russia. Formidable horsemen and skilled bowmen, these warring nomads were also famous for their dogs

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alano_Espa%C3%B1ol

Molosser

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Molosser

Alaunt

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alaunt

"Paul Strang, a cynologist and a noted authority on the Great Pyrenees, observes in his book "The Complete Great Pyrenees", that the existence of massive native breeds today in Turkey, Iran, and Southern Russia could support the theory that the ancestors of today's mastiff breeds came from the Middle East. Other serious cynologists, such as David and Judy Nelson, agree with that possibility. Remains of domestic dogs from 5500 years ago have discovered in many parts of Iran of today. But the territory of Iran of today is not the same lands of old Persia which was much bigger and included the lands from India in east to Greece in west. Even the areas of southern Russia and the central Asia of today (Caucas, Azerbaijan, Armenia, Georgia and...) or better to say the origin area of Mid. Asian and Caucasian shepherds were the Iranian territories and passed to Russia after peace between the two countries, just about 100 years ago. These areas were the "lands of mastiffs" for thousands of years. Four kinds of old Persian dogs were reported by the classical authors" (Source: Persian Mastiffs a brief historical summary about the ancient mastiffs of Iran)



http://irandogs.110mb.com/breeds/mastiff/mastif.html

Hyrcanian Mastiff, "Lion dog"



Brazilian Fila (Fila Brasileiro), also known as Brazilian Mastyff



The Fila Brasileiro is believed to have been developed from a number of breeds, predominantly the Mastiff, the Bulldog and the Bloodhound (the last contributing to breed's loose skin). The Fila Brasileiros were found primarily on large plantations and cattle farms from where they originated. Reportedly, they are also excellent tracking dogs and were used to track slaves and fugitives

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fila_Brasileiro

Hyrcania, New-Found Connection

October's YHRD new release of haplotypes revealed samples of DNA from the Southern Caspian Sea peoples, a region known in ancient times as Hyrcania, the ancient state in the north of Iran . The southern shores of the Caspian Sea (Hyrcanian Sea) are the Iranian provinces of Gilan and Mazandaran.





Wiki

The J1b M365+ "genetic signature" (the distinct DYS 393=13, 390=22, 19=15 and the J1 indicator 458=18,2) has been found there:

1/47 (one in 47 tested) - Rasht, Gilaki, Iran
1/50 (one in 50 tested)- Sari, Mazandarani, Iran


19 – 389I – 389II – 390 – 391 – 392 – 393 – 385 – 438 – 439 – 437 – 448 - -456 – 458 – 635– GATA H4:
15 – 13 – 29 – 22 – 10 – 11 – 13 – 12,20 – 10 – 11 – 14 – 20 – 15 – 18,2 – 21 -10 Rasht, Gilaki, Iran
15 – 13 – 29 – 22 – 10 – 11 – 13 – 12,12 – 10 – 11 – 14 – 20 – 15 – 18,2 – 20 -10 Sari, Mazandarani, Iran

I keep the Alan’s hypothesis as the source of J1b presence in Portugal and in Brazil, the Alans were an Iranian nomadic group !

The Alans have been in Hyrcania, according to Josephus:


Now there was a nation of the Alans, which we have formerly mentioned some where as being Scythians and inhabiting at the lake Meotis. This nation about this time laid a design of falling upon Media, and the parts beyond it, in order to plunder them; with which intention they treated with the king of Hyrcania; for he was master of that passage which king Alexander [the Great] shut up with iron gates. This king gave them leave to come through them; so they came in great multitudes, and fell upon the Medes unexpectedly, and plundered their country, which they found full of people, and replenished with abundance of cattle, while nobody durst make any resistance against them; for Paeorus, the king of the country, had fled away for fear into places where they could not easily come at him, and had yielded up every thing he had to them, and had only saved his wife and his concubines from them, and that with difficulty also, after they had been made captives, by giving them a hundred talents for their ransom. These Alans therefore plundered the country without opposition, and with great ease, and proceeded as far as Armenia, laying all waste before them


http://www.sacred-texts.com/jud/josephus/war-7.htm


What is remarkable is that apparently J1b M365+ can be found only in regions impacted and crossed by the Alans. The genetic distance of all haplotypes is relatively tightly closed from Hyrcania to old Roman Gallaecia in Northwestern Iberia, almost the same haplotype covering big geographical distances and centuries of separation from the common tribal source, but showing little genetic distance revealing a recognizable distinct homogeneous pattern with minimal differences in spite of the space and ages trekked.

Up-to-dated Haplotypes:

http://tinyurl.com/3qwytu

Up-to-dated J1b Map

http://tinyurl.com/5owkuh