Origin and Domestication of Dogs
The dog, Canis familiaris, is the only member of the Canidae that can be said to be fully domesticated. The immediate wild ancestor of Canis familiaris has been the subject of much debate. At one time it was believed that the dog was descended from the intez, said that some breeds of dogs were descended from the golden jackal, while others, those that he called “lupus’ breeds were directly descended from the wolf. r breeding of wolves, coyotes, jackals and other wild canids. During the 1940s, the Nobel prizewinning ethologist, Konrad Loren Linnaeus on the contrary, considered the dog to be a separate species, distinguished by its upturned tail, a characteristic found in no other canid. More recently, wolf and dog expert Micdhael Fox developed a “missing link” theory. He believes that the dog is descended from a new-extinct European dingo like dog. Current behavioral, morphological and molecular biological evidence supports the wolf (Canis lupus) as the primary wild anc...