Biology News from millerandlevine.com
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Where did dogs come from? Similarities between the wolf (Canis lupus) and the dog (Canis familiaris) have long suggested that domesticated dogs originated in wolf populations that began to live along with people. But where did the first steps of domestication take place? Researchers have long eastern Europe or the Middle East
But a new study published in the November 22, 2002 issue of the journal SCIENCE suggests that dogs first apeared in eastern Asia. In fact, when the very first Americans crossed the land bridge from Asia roughly 15,000 years ago, dogs may have been at their sides. Researchers based their conclusions on DNA studies of modern dogs, and also of the remains of dogs from both the eastern and western hemispheres.
Click Here for a Science News article on this research.
The New York Times also described this research, as did Scientific American.