Mapping Wolf DNA Data

Dogs are man’s best friend. It’s a phrase we are all familiar with. Some have said that dogs are the only animal that has truly been domesticated. Interestingly, this seems to have been the case for a very long time. There is even an 8000-year-old dog buried with its owner and wearing some sort of necklace. Such instances of ancient humans burying dogs exist in many cultures as well, everywhere from Siberia to Turkey. How did this come to pass though? Dogs are not so different from the modern coyote or wolf, both wild animals with no particular affinity for humans. What is it that changed to make dogs evolve in such a different way than their four-legged cousins? One of the most common theories for how the transition from wild beast to “fetch the paper, boy” is what could be called the ‘slow trust’ theory. The idea is basically that a curious wolf got closer and closer to people at the fire and instead of killing it, some early humans decided to feed it. Over time the wolf became dependent on the huma