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Dogs and wolves may both be canine, but that doesn’t mean that they are close. A study published this week in PLOS Genetics finds that the world’s domestic dog breeds are all more genetically similar to each other than any one of them is to a wolf, and that the common ancestor between wolves and dogs died out more than 9,000 years ago.
It’s accepted fact that the furry four-legged friends that live among us today emerged at some point from wolves. Human domestication of dogs began around 32,000 to 18,000 years ago, possibly in Europe and as a result of wolves initially seeking out the carcasses that ancient human hunters were leaving behind.
But much change can befall a species in 18 or more millennia. As the dogs lived and bred within th
SussexMike
Could be that dogs did not come from wolves,or they were crosses; this is a short about Dmitry Belyaev's work,amazing what can happen in a few generations.
www.youtube.com...
Coincidentally, today there has been four foxes yapping, calling and fighting in my and my nieghbor's gardens, think a new male was trying to take over.
Aleister
reply to post by SuperFrog
But wolves and dogs can breed with each other and produce offspring. So how much of a distance would there have to be before that was no longer possible? Or does that make them quite close again, like before this study. Maybe, since a dog lineage and a wolf lineage separated from a common ancestor such a long time ago still can mate and have puppies. Interesting finding.
theMediator
reply to post by SuperFrog
I'm sorry but wolf-dogs aren't all infertile.
Seriously, I call BS on this research. Dogs and wolves just can't be that far apart if they can still breed with each other.
riffraff
I'm wondering how they know we domesticated dogs 32,000 years ago when civilization and written language only began 6,000 years ago with the Sumerians.
dashen
I wonder what type of wolves they tested?
There are wolves and wild canines all over the world. Eg dingos, african wild dogs, coyotes, jackals