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Why are dogs and people so close?

People who have owned dogs know that dogs are very close to people. Studies have shown that dogs are even better at understanding human intentions than chimpanzees. Not only that, dogs are the most loyal of all domesticated animals - police dogs, military dogs, guide dogs, guard dogs, companion dogs, and play dogs. Their magical talents and selfless love for human beings are still irreplaceable right-hand assistants of human beings even in today's advanced science and technology. These are the results of long-term human domestication.

Maybe you don't know? Although humans have domesticated pigs, cattle, horses, chickens and many other animals, the first wild animal to be domesticated is the wolf. When the wolf meets the dog, the wolf is the ancestor of the dog! However, does the dog originate from one kind of wolf or many kinds of wolves? Is it domesticated in one area and then spread to all parts of the world, or has it been domesticated successfully in different places, even into the world Darwin, the founder of the theory of transformation, also said he couldn't see through it.

In recent years, with the development of molecular biology, things began to change. After analyzing the mitochondrial DNA of dogs, wolves and jackals, scientists found that the relationship between dogs and gray wolves was the closest, indicating that dogs were most likely domesticated by gray wolves. As for the origin of dogs, there has always been controversy. In 2002, science, the world's top academic magazine, reported that after comparing the DNA of dogs from all over the world, Chinese and Swedish scientists said that dogs in East Asia have the most abundant genetic diversity, and dogs have the closest genetic relationship with Chinese gray wolves. Therefore, modern dogs probably originated in China about 16000 years ago.

This view immediately ignited the gunpowder keg of the debate, and other scientists began to produce various kinds of refuting evidence. In 2010, the well-known online edition of nature published another genetic analysis that suggested that dogs were closely related to gray wolves in the Middle East, and that the origin of dogs was located in the Middle East, which was 13000 to 12000 years ago. However, the study also acknowledged that a small number of Oriental dogs do have a genetic relationship with Chinese gray wolves. It seems that the dispute over the origin of dogs will continue for some time.

No matter how controversial, it is an indisputable fact that dogs and humans have been together for more than 10000 years. Over the years, more than 100 million dogs have served humans, creating a deep bond between the two. Although dogs can occasionally infect some people and dog diseases, which will bring some harm to people, they are indisputably the closest animal friends of human beings.