How the Dog Became the Dog

Although the exact origins of the dog are disputed, it seems certain that its wild progenitor was the grey wolf, the two being closer genetically than are the races of humans. Mark Derr's study traces the domestic dogs evolution from the first 'dogwolves', which, some time around the end of the last Ice Age, developed mutually beneficial relationships with groups of hunter-gathering humans, through centuries of natural and artificial selection to the multifarious breeds of today.