Study Shows Ancient Americans Bred Dogs for Their Wool

(Inside Science) -- Some people indigenous to the Pacific Northwest selectively bred special “wool dogs” to make blankets from their hair, perhaps thousands of years before Europeans arrived in the area, new research suggests.The study reinforces accounts by European explorers and traditional histories of special wool dogs in the region, and indicates the cultural importance of dogs -- the only animal that had been domesticated when the first peoples crossed en masse from Siberia to North America at least 17,000 years ago.It also reveals the economic importance of wool dogs to communities alon