Animal breeds

[Rishi]

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Wiki says:

Quote:The dog diverged from a now-extinct population of wolves immediately before the Last Glacial Maximum, when much of Eurasia was a cold, dry mammoth steppe biome. 

The closest living relative of the dog is the extant gray wolf, and an extinct Late Pleistocene wolf is the nearest common ancestor to the dog & modern wolf.
The dog and the extant gray wolf are sister taxa, as modern wolves are not closely related to the wolves that were first domesticated to Paleolithic dogs.

https://www.ancient-origins.net/history/26000-year-old-child-footprints-found-alongside-paw-prints-reveal-oldest-evidence-human-canine-relationhip 

A recent study suggests that domestication took place from a single population in during a short time somewhere in Eastern Asia from where they migrated, on which another fascinating research was done.

But it's likely that ancestors of dogs, weaker & docile outcasts from wild packs, may have been following hunter-gatherers for more than 40k years! 
There's no reason that feat wasn't replicated elsewhere, penally in smaller scale.

This study on genetic diversity of village dogs over the world, found high quite an amount of genetic differences in local strays, actually more than artificially created "breeds" who were basically inbred to highlight certain desired traits.
Unfortunately, need for those are mostly gone today & these once functional breeds are being turned into abominations.

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