Of Glaciers, Wolves, and Humans

A new study calls northeast Siberia the birthplace of dogs.
Siberian wolf

I was greeted the other morning by an email from a friend telling me that a paper published that day in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS) confirmed an idea I first put forth in How the Dog Became the Dog: That the Last Glacial Maximum served as a pivotal period in development of a distinctive dog morphology that distinguished them from wolves. During that time, animals and plants took refuge in areas that were shielded from the bitter cold. My theory was that if you could find refugia where wolves and humans were in close proximity during this period, you might find out where the animals we recognize today as dogs emerged. Further, I suggested that after the ice began to retreat from its maximum extent, humans and their dogs took to the trail.

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