Dogs were just a loose category of wolves until around 15,000 years ago, when our ancestors tamed and began to manage them. We fed them, bred them, and spread them from continent to continent. While other wolf descendants died out, dogs grew into a new species. We invented the dog.
Some genetic analyses of modern dogs suggest they arose in East Asia, whereas other genetic and archaeological evidence indicates our pups came from Siberia, the Middle East, Western Europe, or perhaps multiple places.
A study of dog DNA has shown that our "best friend" in the animal world may also be our oldest one. The analysis reveals that dog domestication can be traced back 11,000 years, to the end of the last Ice Age. This confirms that dogs were domesticated before any other known species.
The dog, Canis familiaris, is a direct descendent of the gray wolf, Canis lupus: In other words, dogs as we know them are domesticated wolves. Not only their behavior changed; domestic dogs are different in form from wolves, mainly smaller and with shorter muzzles and smaller teeth.
During the ice age, hunter-gatherers may have shared any surplus with wolves, which became their pets. The timing and causes of the domestication of dogs are both uncertain. Genetic evidence suggests that dogs split from their wolf ancestors between 27,000 and 40,000 years ago.
And the rest — more than 800 million dogs — are already living on their own, she says. So would they survive without us? They already do. However if you took humans out of the equation, life would get harder for dogs before it got easier.
Dogs were just a loose category of wolves until around 15,000 years ago, when our ancestors tamed and began to manage them. We fed them, bred them, and spread them from continent to continent. While other wolf descendants died out, dogs grew into a new species. We invented the dog.
The archaeological record and genetic analysis show the remains of the Bonn-Oberkassel dog buried beside humans 14,200 years ago to be the first undisputed dog, with disputed remains occurring 36,000 years ago.
Dogs most probably evolved from wolves at a single location about 20,000 to 40,000 years ago, a study suggests. Previously, it had been thought that dogs were tamed from two populations of wolves living thousands of miles apart.
The First Animals
Sponges were among the earliest animals. While chemical compounds from sponges are preserved in rocks as old as 700 million years, molecular evidence points to sponges developing even earlier.
There is archaeological evidence dogs were the first animals domesticated by humans more than 30,000 years ago (more than 10,000 years before the domestication of horses and ruminants).
Humans and dogs have had a special bond for thousands of years—we see it in the way dogs work, play, and live with us. Most experts agree that this relationship developed when the wolf, the dog's ancestor, and human came in contact with each other.
Some experts believe that dogs know we are a different species, so they wouldn't consider us eligible for their furry four-legged group. That said, dogs often treat us as like we're part of one big happy pack. They can be incredibly loyal and loving to their family members.
And some of the human-dog correspondences can certainly be explained by people bringing their canine companions when they moved from place to place. But for the evolutionarily oldest patterns, there's a big problem: The human groups in question split over 45,000 years ago, long before dogs were domesticated.
An international team of scientists has just identified what they believe is the world's first known dog, which was a large and toothy canine that lived 31,700 years ago and subsisted on a diet of horse, musk ox and reindeer, according to a new study.
Scientists have come up with a broad picture of the origins of dogs. First off, researchers agree that they evolved from ancient wolves.
It seems the that the cat family branched off first, 10.3 million years ago, before the family of dog-like mammals, 7.8 million years ago.
The Siberian Husky, originally and still used for sledding, is very similar to wolves. Overtime not only has the resemblance to wolves stayed similar, but the genetic composition has as well.
Dogs may have been domesticated and kept as pets since Paleolithic times, as can be surmised from the paintings and carvings that archaeologists have found in ancient campsites and tombs. It is likely that the dog was not only the first domesticated species but also the first animal kept as a pet.
Researchers found that the version of the gene IGF1 that is a major determinant of small size in dogs probably originated as a result of domestication of the Middle Eastern gray wolf, which also happens to be smaller than many other wolves.
Our feline friends share 90% of homologous genes with us, with dogs it is 82%, 80% with cows, 69% with rats and 67% with mice [1]. Human and chimpanzee DNA is so similar because the two species are so closely related.
Due to modern recordkeeping and an increased interest in dogs, the chances of any breed disappearing completely are slim.
It's likely that, with time, dogs would learn to adjust, survive and potentially thrive in a world without us. Besides, nearly 80 percent of the world's dogs today are free-ranging; therefore, not having humans around wouldn't matter much to most dogs.
Dog Domestication May Have Begun because Paleo Humans Couldn't Stomach the Original Paleo Diet. It's easy to understand why early humans domesticated dogs as their new best friends. Tame canines can guard against predators and interlopers, carry supplies, pull sleds and provide warmth during cold nights.