Hunters tamed wolves to kick off dog domestication

摘要

IT'S no shaggy dog story. European hunter-gatherers were the first to bring dogs to heel, according to the latest attempt at dating the origins of man's best friend. Robert Wayne at the University of California, Los Angeles, and his colleagues looked at mitochondrial DNA from the bones of 18 prehistoric canids (wolves and dogs) from Eurasia, the US and Argentina. They also gathered this DNA from 130 modern wolves and dogs from all over the world. By comparing the DNA, the team worked out how all of the animals related to each other.