I love dogs, I learned that The dog and the extant gray wolf are sister taxa as modern wolves are not closely related to the wolves that were first domesticated
I do too and I have pet dogs and working dogs for the livestock
was the first species to be domesticated and has been selectively bred over millennia for various behaviors, sensory capabilities, and physical attributes.
Their long association with humans has led dogs to be uniquely attuned to human behavior and they are able to thrive on a starch-rich diet that would be inadequate for other canid species. Dogs vary widely in shape, size and colors. They perform many roles for humans, such as hunting, herding, pulling loads, protection, assisting police and military, companionship and, more recently
but their turnover has been high, and modern wolves are not the lineal ancestors of dogs. Although research had suggested that dogs and wolves were genetically very close relatives, later phylogenetic analysis strongly supported the hypothesis that dogs and wolves are reciprocally monophylic taxa that form two sister clades. This suggests that none of the modern wolf populations are related to the wolves that were first domesticated and the wolf ancestor of dogs is therefore presumed extinct. Recent mitochondrial DNA analyses of ancient and modern gray wolf specimens supports a pattern of population reduction and