A wise philosopher once pondered, who let the dogs out, who?
who?
No but seriously, where did modern dogs come from?
Hey guys, Julia here for DNews.
Dogs come in all sorts of varieties.
From tiny chihuahuas to great danes, dogs are more variable in size, shape and temperament
than any other living mammal.
The American Kennel Club recognizes 167 dog breeds, but the world governing body of dog
breeds, the Fédération Cynologique Internationale (FCI), recognizes 340 breeds!
Dogs are members of the family Canidae, which is a lineage of Carnivorans that include wolves,
foxes, and jackals.
Fossils show that Canidae split off from the ancestors of Carnivora about 40 million years
ago.
Despite the wide spectrum of body types, colors, and behaviors, all dogs share a common ancestor.
They are all direct descendents of the canis lupus, or gray wolf.
What’s unclear is exactly when these wolves became domesticated.
At some point, wolves began to linger around humans, who eventually bred them into different
forms of dogs.
One study published in the journal Current Biology found that modern dog ancestors split
from wolf ancestors at least 27,000 years ago.
Fossils dating back as far as 36,000 years ago hinted at the transition, with mixed features
of both wolf and dog.
A May 2013 study in Nature Communications reported that wolves and Chinese indigenous
dogs split 32,000 years ago.
Researchers used demographic analysis of different mutations in the genomes of dogs and wolves,
with results indicating that dogs initially scavenged with humans.
But a recent discovery has experts rethinking dogs ancestry altogether.
According to a study in Scientific Reports, the remains of a supposed dog from over 31,000
years ago were actually those of a wolf.
Researchers used 3D imaging to compare the fossil found at Goyet Cave in Belgium to other
dogs and wolves.
The results found the features to be more wolf than dog, which indicates that dogs did
not gradually evolve from wolves over a long period of time.
The study says the domestication of dogs took place during the Neolithic era (10,200 B.C.-2,000
B.C.), when humans started forming settlements and farming around 12,000 years ago.
If this is true, it refutes previous research that stated that dogs emerged in the Paleolithic
era (2.6 million years ago to 10,200 B.C.) when people were hunter-gatherers.
So when did dogs become man’s best friend?
The bones of a puppy and an elderly person were found buried together in Israel, dating
back to 14,000 years ago.
Even though dogs were domesticated so long ago, most dog breeds were developed within
the last few centuries.
And some breeds have even changed a lot just within the past 100 years.
Ancient humans started to breed dogs for desired features, like a louder bark or a calmer demeanor,
which effectively meant they were messing with the selection of dog genes.
Over time, the breeds increased due to natural mutations and climate in addition to human
preferences.
To this day, dogs are still evolving as we continue to create new dog breeds.
This is evident in the trend of designer dogs like the labradoodle and the puggle.
So do you love dogs, have you always loved dogs?
So does Andrew Fladeboe, a photographer who tries to capture the precious moments of working
pooches.
Check out this great episode from This Happened Here