Did you know that dogs evolved from grey wolves? Or that humans formed an unlikely bond early on with wolves?
The video above explains that these wolves have changed considerably over the years. What we have now are dogs – with floppy ears and a docile temperament, much less frightening than their predecessors.
Scientists, it is highlighted in the video, present different theories on where, when and how dogs descended from wild wolves. Greger Larson, an archaeologist and geneticist from the University of Oxford, has been researching on the topic for a while.
The revelations are surprising – Larson thinks dogs were actually domesticated twice by humans! He paints this picture: thousands of years ago, somewhere in West Eurasia, humans decided to domesticate grey wolves.
People far away in the East had the same idea. Now migration and shifting territories led to an interaction (read mating) between these dogs with the indigenous western dogs. What we have now is a curious idea which looks at the dogs in the West today. It’s said that most of their ancestry can be traced to the early eastern migrants.
Other experts follow different theories, but Larson has more. He says that if dogs really did happen to originate only once, there should be a uniform line of fossils, which isn’t the case.
Why are these theories important? Because they say that dogs preceded agriculture and even livestock when it came forming a bond with humans. That makes them not just man's best friends, but also man's oldest friends.
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