Man's best friend: All dogs probably originated from wolves living in the Middle East, but the prized relationship between dogs and men took a long time to developAll domestic dogs - from French poodles to German shepherds - are descended from wolves who roamed the Middle East more than 12,000 years ago, according to a new genetic study.
But researchers said they were probably viewed as a nuisance rather than faithful companions in the early years.
This supports archeological evidence that closely links the domestication of dogs in the Middle East with the rise of human civilization there, scientists said.
'It's significant because this is where civilization developed, and dogs were part of that,' said study author Professor Robert Wayne, from the University of California, Los Angeles.
'We know that dogs from the Middle East were closely associated with humans because they were found in ancient human burial sites.
'In one case, a puppy is curled up in the arms of a buried human.'
The region, often referred to as the Fertile Crescent, includes much of modern-day Iraq, Syria, Lebanon and Jordan - 'the same area where domestic cats and many of our livestock originated, and where agriculture first developed,' he said.
Cats would have by protected grain from rats and mice on homesteads.
The study, published in the online edition of the scientific journal Nature, is based on genetic comparisons between more than 900 dogs representing 85 breeds and over 200 wild gray wolves from around the globe.
In the most extensive analysis to date, scientists used molecular genetic techniques to examine more than 48,000 markers from across the entire DNA sequence from each of the animals included in the study.
What they discovered was the vast majority of dogs share more unique genetic markers with grey wolves from the Middle East. A weaker kinship to European wolves was also found.
Earlier research found a close genetic link between a small number of East Asian dog breeds and wolves from China
However, that work was based on only a small part of the genome, in the mitochondria, and does not give a fuller picture, according to Professor Wayne.
He said the newer research was far more comprehensive and 'is much more consistent with the archeological record.'
Although agriculture and animal husbandry go hand in hand, the first people to domesticate dogs from wild wolves probably were nomadic hunter-gatherers, who were followed at a distance by canine interlopers in search of scraps.
That relationship likely matured over thousands of years 'to the point where these proto-dogs were living in close proximity with humans,' and were often more of a nuisance than they were companions, Professor Wayne said.
So it was only after a long period of time that dogs became man's best friend.
'Eventually dogs provided protection, an early warning system, maybe even helped out with the hunt, and then eventually, even closer in, provided companionship.'
While some dog breeds have ancient histories, 80 per cent are modern varieties that have evolved since the explosion in dog breeding during the Victorian era, Professor Wayne said.
source: dailymail
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