All dogs are wolves. Their DNA is identical........................
Dogs Not as Close Kin to Wolves as Thought
The relationship between dogs and wolves is far more complex than previously imagined.
By Jen ViegasPublished on 1/16/2014 at 5:00 PM
A widely held belief is that dogs evolved from gray wolves, but a new study finds that the common ancestor of dogs and wolves went extinct thousands of years ago.
What’s more, the extensive DNA analysis — published in the latest PLoS Genetics — found that dogs are more closely related to each other than to wolves, regardless of their geographic origin. The genetic overlap seen today between dogs and wolves is likely then due to interbreeding after dog domestication.
“The common ancestor of dogs and wolves was a large, wolf-like animal that lived between 9,000 and 34,000 years ago,” Robert Wayne, co-senior author of the study, told Discovery News. “Based on DNA evidence, it lived in Europe.”
I still refer to mine as house wolves, anyway.
:)