The Origins of Dogs: Where Man's Best Friend Came From

There may be a new twist on where dogs first came from. While controversy has often surrounded the origins of man's best friend, one researcher believes he may have evidence that will finally settle the matter.

Some researchers believe that canines first split off from wolves in the Middle East. Others, though, claim that this happened in Europe. In this case, the researchers believes that dogs originated in South East Asia alone.

According to the new research, it seems as if others were thrown off the scent when it came to the origins of dogs. The data that researchers relied on in the past did not include samples from South Asia.

"Which is why we analyzed the entire nuclear genome of a global sample collection from 46 dogs, which includes samples from southern China and South East Asia," said Peter Savolainen, the researcher conducting the work, in a news release. "We then found out that dogs from South East Asia stand out from all other dog populations, because they have the highest genetic diversity and are genetically closest to the wolf."

This, in particular, is strong evidence that the dog originated in this region. It also confirms earlier studies that Savolainen did with mitochondrial DNA.

"We also found that the global dog population is based on two important events: the dog and wolf populations first began to split off around 33,000 years ago in South East Asia," said Savolainen. "The global spread of dogs followed about 18,000 years later."

It could be that the wolf population became divided and the south Chinese wolf developed into dogs. It's possible that the global spread of dogs out of South East Asia is associate with domestication.

The findings are published in the journal Cell Research.

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