East Asian dogs have a more complex pedigree.

Chinese breeds arose as a result of crossing between the ancestors of the Australian dingoes and New Guinean singing dogs with breeds from Europe and the Russian steppes.The singing dog is so named for the melodic howl that begins with a high note.»Dogs are our closest and longest

partners in the animal kingdom. Studying the DNA of ancient dogs allows us to find out how far back in our common history and where it began,» said study co-author Gregor Larson from the University of Oxford.It is generally accepted that dogs are descended from wolves that accidentally

wandered into human camps, most likely in search of food. After taming, they began to serve people as hunting assistants and watchmen.The current study shows that all dogs are descended from one or more closely related now-extinct wolf populations. If domestication occurred

repeatedly and in different places, the rest of the genetic lines were little reflected in the DNA of modern dogs.So far, it has not been possible to find out where and when exactly this main taming happened.»The history of dogs is so dynamic that it’s hard to read it in genetic lines. It remains a

fascinating mystery,» says Dr. Skoglund.The rest of domestic animals, including cats, were tamed when people moved to a settled life and took up agriculture, that is, more than six thousand years ago.Cats were probably attracted to the food waste of crowded settlements, and then they were

useful to the new owners as hunters for mice that devastated the barns. Obviously, this happened in the Middle East, the cradle of agriculture.»As for dogs, they could be tamed anywhere: in cold Siberia, in the hot Middle East, in Southeast Asia. Anything is possible,» says Pontus Skoglund.