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Where was the domestication of dogs first started?
By what people?

Wish I could remember. There was a timeline for domestication of varieus animals in a Nat Geo Magazine this last year. As I expected, dogs were fairly early and cats were fairly late, but I didn't think cows were later than cats.

I've been trying to see if Nat Geo's website has a subject search so I can find some of these articles, but I'm having trouble getting in. If i find anything, I'll post it here.

According to Dr. Bruce Fogle's book "If your dog could talk...", here's a timeline I've created.

45,000 years ago - genetic evidence shows that the original adaptation have occurred this early in east Asia

15,000 years ago - archaeological evidence confirms it started from this point forward

14,000 years ago - people who migrated across the Bering Island bridge brought their dogs with them (which means that that the dog's ancestry probably originated from a small group of Asian wolves)

200 - 300 years ago - a vast majority of the 400 recognized breeds were created during this time

I hope this helps.

If the domesticated dogs were originated in Asia, when and how did they spread to the rest of the world?
I don't mind to hear some more details.

I'm all for the Bering straight theory. Look at the ssimilarities between the sled dog breeds, the Japanese Shiba and Akita, the Chinese Chow, and other Asian breeds. They all look like they have a common ancestor.

Believe the domestication of dogs occurred along time ago during the time of hunters and gatherers. Early man saw the benefit of having this ally along on hunts to help locate or take down game. For how they arrived to the Americas, more than likely the same thing with the Bering Strait landbridge during the time before the ice age.

Early dogs probably also served to help in protection as when large groups of early man settled in a location for a bit, wolves and other predators more than likely tried to come into the camp only to have the dogs warn the humans of the approaching danger.

(06-11-2012, 02:21 PM)Ram Wrote: [ -> ]If the domesticated dogs were originated in Asia, when and how did they spread to the rest of the world?
I don't mind to hear some more details.

Quote:A 2002 study by Peter Savolainen et al. identified mitochondrial DNA evidence suggesting a common origin from a single East Asian gene pool for all dog populations. In 2010, a study by Bridgett vonHoldt et al., using a larger data set of nuclear markers, pointed to the Middle East as the source of most of the genetic diversity in the domestic dog and a more likely origin of domestication events. Z-L Ding et al. (2011) presented new Y-chromosome data from 151 dogs sampled worldwide, again pointing to a single domestication region south of the Yangtze river.
Source

Unfortunately even with the multiple studies of the origins of the dog, no one can definitely say where. They all rely on archaeological findings and genetics.

Two studies have already mentioned that the domestication started near the Yangtze River. One of which was the 2009 study by the Kunming Institute stating that dogs were domesticated from wolves tamed less than 16,300 years ago and the other is mentioned above.

The history of dogs stretch back into the mists of time. When I was doing research on Thai breeds this is what I found:


The dog in the cave painting is said to be that of the Thai Ridgeback. It dates back to about 3000 years ago. This is the Thai Ridgeback today:


Notice the ridge of hair along its back which gives it its name. The Thai Ridgeback is one of the two internationally-recognized Thai dog breeds. The other is the Bangkeaw.

More information here:
http://www.thailandridgebacks.com/html/history.html