The origin of dogs

by Lenda | May 6, 2020 |

A genetic analysis published by UCLA researchers in the Science journal  has shown that wolves were domesticated by European hunter-gatherers more than 18,000 years ago and evolved until dogs became household pets.

Biologists studied the mitochondria DNA of different groups of modern dogs and wolves and concluded that it was not less than 18,000 years ago that dogs evolved from an extinct wolf population, and that none of the populations of modern wolves studied (coming from the Middle East, Asia and Europe) is related to the modern dog.

Robert Wayne, professor of ecology and evolutionary biology at UCLA University and lead author of the research, noted that ” The wolf is one of the earliest domesticated species  and the only major carnivore ever domesticated.” In a time prior to sedentary lifestyle, when men were hunters and gatherers, this was probably due to the fact that the wolf was the first to take advantage of the carcasses of the animals that humans were leaving behind and was accompanying them in their migrations and co -evolving with them independently the native wolf populations.

It seems that the scientific debate on whether dogs were domesticated and whether it was related to the development of agriculture, less than 10,000 years ago, or if it occurred much earlier, is thus settled . In the new research, Wayne and colleagues estimate that dogs were domesticated between 18,000 and 32,000 years ago.

The importance of this discovery lies in the fact that this fact supports the thesis that the dog could have been a determining factor in human development and evolution and key in the sedentary process of the first humans.

Approximately 80 percent of dog breeds are modern breeds that developed in the past few hundred years , Wayne said. However, some dog breeds have ancient stories that date back thousands of years.

Source:  www.sciencedaily.com