"Modern dog breeds come in a mind-boggling array of shapes and sizesfrom Chihuahua to Great Dane, corgi to greyhound, pug to German shepherd. In fact, the domestic dog, Canis familiaris, shows more variation in its physical features than any other mammalian species on Earth. Conventional wisdom holds that this extreme variation is the result of humans intensively breeding dogs for particular traits over the past 200 years or so."
"From there, the story gets harder to discern because the record of ancient dog remains (including any DNA or other molecules that might have been preserved) is patchy. Although some archaeological evidence hints that the first domestic dogs might date back as far as 33,000 years ago or more, analyses of ancient DNA put the origin of our canine companions at more like 11,000 years ago."
Dogs evolved from wolves and were domesticated multiple times and in different regions. The domestic dog, Canis familiaris, exhibits more physical variation than any other mammal. The archaeological record of ancient dog remains and preserved molecules is patchy, producing differing dates for domestication. Some evidence suggests dogs could date back as far as 33,000 years, while ancient DNA analyses indicate an origin near 11,000 years ago. A new analysis of modern and ancient dog and wolf skulls spanning 50,000 years found early definitive dog traits around 11,000 years ago, indicating substantial diversity long before Victorian breed creation.
Read at www.scientificamerican.com
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