Dog FAQ

If you keep a canis lupus familiaris, otherwise known as a dog, you will probably know that she is quite closely related to the wolf. Until recently it was thought that dogs became domesticated from wolves around 15,000 years ago, however, the evidence from mitochondrial DNA studies now suggests that wolves and dogs split into different species around 100,000 years ago. A team of geneticists working at UCLA (The University of California, Los Angeles), studying the DNA of wolves and dogs found that there were far more mutations in the respective DNA patterns, than would be found if the two had split only 15,000 years ago. Mutations are changes that take place in the DNA of a species, and these mutations accumulate over time, so, the longer the time period, the more mutations there are.

Evidence such as this leaves open the question of whether dogs were actually domesticated that long ago, or whether they were domesticated from a species that had previously become separate from wolves. Many researchers are veering towards the view that as long as there have been humans, there have been other animals around them living in symbiosis, where two species mutually benefit each other. Rather than humans dragging cats and dogs out of the forest and forcing them to be subject to domestication, it is more likely that dogs and cats discovered that they were onto a good thing by hanging around groups of humans. Early dogs or wolves, being pack animals, may have assisted humans in tracking, hunting and retrieving prey, in return for a share in the spoils.

So the ancestors of your faithful companion may well have been around your ancestors since the dawn of humankind itself.

Filed under: Dog genetics