The Qimmiq, an Arctic breed believed to date to before Europeans arrived in the Americas, descends from a precontact dog population. The Qimmiq carries a haplotype (a group of genetic variants inherited together from one parent) absent in European dogs but present in Northeast Asian dogs, supporting the idea that precontact breeds in the Americas descend from dogs that accompanied human migration from Asia during the last ice age. The Dixie dingo, a tan-coated breed native to the rural Gulf Coast of the United States, offers additional support: living individuals carry haplotype B217, part of a haplotype group unique to Northeast Asian dogs. Many other precontact breeds, such as Canada’s Tahltan bear dog, disappeared through interbreeding with dogs brought from Europe.
Which finding, if true, would most directly undermine the underlined claim?
Explanation
Context: The underlined claim: the Dixie dingo offers additional support for precontact Asian ancestry, because living dingoes carry haplotype B217, unique to Northeast Asian dogs. The argument depends on B217 having arrived before European contact.
Answer: C) Northeast Asian breeds were imported to the Gulf Coast in the 1900s, and the Dixie dingo’s recent ancestry may include them.
Why? This supplies a modern route for B217 to enter the breed. If the Asian haplotype could have arrived in the twentieth century, its presence in living dingoes no longer indicates precontact Asian descent, and the evidence stops supporting the claim.
Traps:
- A) B217 in ancient Northeast Asian remains → reinforces the haplotype’s Asian origin, strengthening the claim.
- B) Genes shared with pre-arrival European dogs → concerns other genes; B217 remains absent in European dogs.
- D) B217 in precontact North American remains elsewhere → confirms the haplotype was already in the Americas before contact, again supporting rather than undermining.