From Wolf to Wiener Dog? When Did it All Begin?
The long-debated question of where dogs first appeared has always been complex. Wolves are the ancestors of dogs, but for years researchers have been unable to agree on when the canines were first domesticated. In a new study, a palaeogeneticist finds your dog’s ancestor came from wolves 40,000 yrs ago.
In the paper, titled “Ancient European dog genomes reveal continuity since the Early Neolithic,” in the journal Nature Communications, Stony Brook University’s Krishna R. Veeramah, PhD and colleagues write that the most plausible explanation was a single instance of domestication as far as 40,000 years ago, contrary to the results of a previous analysis in 2016 that suggested dogs were domesticated twice.
However, Veeramah did not make any claims as to where dogs split from wolves, he noted.