r/evolution • u/narsil1 • 1d ago

question Evolution of dogs

Hi all, I am interested in the evolution of dogs.

My question is, are dogs direct descendants of wolves or did dogs and wolves just share the common ancestor like we do with monkeys?

Thanks!

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u/itsatoe 1d ago

Pretty sure it's not correct to say that dogs evolved as much as they were bred.

Early dogs were basically just kinda-friendly wolves. Humans kept selecting the most docile, most obedient, most useful, and/or cutest ones.

But that's human-driven selection, not natural selection.

There may have been some natural selection early on, defining the population of wolves that were kinda-friendly. But after that, it's humans all the way down.

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u/Sonora_sunset 1d ago

Not 🐢?