History of domestication of dogs relates to the friendly partnership between humans and dogs. As per the rules of a relationship, it is necessary for both parties to take care of some of the basic needs of each other. That was exactly in this case, dogs helped human in hunting, transferring any information and an alarm system. In return, humans provided them with shelter, food and protection from different factors. However, it has become the biggest debate for the last few years that when this companionship first started.
History of Dog Domestication
Dogs have now become an integral part of our lives. There are various reasons behind it but most important is the level of relationship a dog develops. It is the nature of dogs that makes them closer to human. Moreover, dogs were the first animal that was domesticated because they can fit easily in any type of society. Most of us raised puppies and it was the time before anyone hadn’t raised any chickens, cows, sheep and goats. We can say that the dog was part of human evolution and enhancement.
Two Domestication Theory
In 2016, a research team states that there are two places that can be the potential origin of dog domestication. First is in Eastern Eurasia and second is in Western Eurasia. The research also depicts that the domestication of dog started 12,500 years ago in one of the events by Asian wolves. Moreover, Palaeolithic dogs got acquittance with humans in an event organized by European Wolves 15,000 years ago. However, 6400 years ago, the Palaeolithic dogs were swapped by Asian dogs due to the transportation of Asian dogs.
The studies on DNA also describes that all modern-day dogs are just because of that one domestication that was due to Asian wolves. Though the above research illustrates two of the events one by Asian wolves and other by European wolves. According to study, there were two different species of dog but inexistence of European Palaeolithic dogs questions the authenticity of study.
Many questions remain unanswered with this research too that involves the species of American dogs. The American dogs were part of case study but what happened to them afterwards? American dogs were predecessor species that originated from wolves but these are extinct now. However, many types of researchers observed the relocation of dogs in the central Asia region that supports the existence of American dogs.
Premature Dog Domestication
The first domestic dog was found in Germany almost 14,000 years ago. The dog was found near a burial site where researchers collected joint committals of both human and dog. Moreover, there is numerous example that was collected from Palaeolithic areas in Europe that were the origin of Palaeolithic dogs. Though it proves the existence of both human and dogs but no proof was discovered that relates to dog domestication. There are multiple pieces of evidence that prove the interaction between human and dogs like Chauvet cave in France, Skateholm in Sweden and Govet cave in Belgium. These places have dog burials that authenticate the existence of dogs.
Moreover, a research conducted in 2013 took DNAs of 126 modern wolves and dogs. They also took 18 fossils so that the comparison should be done to collect results. This theory also concluded that dogs domesticated in Europe and western Siberia. The modern DNAs resembled with European fossils but not a 100% match; it depicts that Europe has something that was quite similar to dogs but there was no match of same fossils in Asia. It means that Asia had the first domestication of dogs according to both the theories discussed in this article.
Modern Species and their Origin
Dogs are categorized into three types based on the size and height. Firstly, large dogs with an average height of 65cm have been discovered in Ukraine, Germany and Russia. Second are medium sized dogs that have average 50cm height, these have been found in Syria, Israel and Iraq. Lastly, small dogs with an average height of 42cm have been found in France, Spain, Germany and Switzerland.
Conversely, single-nucleotide polymorphism (SNPs) is an updated form of DNA that is used to extract more information as compared to DNA. A research in 2012 that used SNP to discover information about the types of dogs and their origin. The size of a dog was a prime argument that was needed to be rectified. The research concluded that the size of the dog had no impact on their next generation. Also, the modern-day dogs are linked with a species that existed 150 years ago and the oldest modern dogs are connected with a species that existed 500 years ago only.
Theory of Modern Type Initiation
Most of researcher and scholars nowadays believe that the type of recent dog is one of the recent species that existed 150-200 years ago. However, we can’t even say that modern dogs don’t have any property of their origin because it is impossible they have some leftover from it. The different species of modern dogs weigh from 1-200 pounds. Moreover, the body structure and skeleton division make them different from one species to other. Some of the species have very good scent detection skills that are named as sniffer dogs. Sniffer dogs play a very vital role in many security cases and that’s one of the examples of human and dog interaction.
In the end, with the advancement of technology, it has changed multiple factors. Kennel clubs is one of the scientific discovery that changed the breeding flow in dogs. It continued during World Wars that resulted in inexistence of various species. After that, many dog breeding techniques have been discovered that help in mixing different types of species. However, the extinct species can’t be recreated using this process but some of their attributes will be part of any new species automatically.
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