What is a dog?The word Canine is derived from the latin word Canis. There are 35 existing species of Canids (meat-eating animals that primarily pursue their prey across open grassland). The word dog itself comes from the Old English word docga.The Dog Family ranges from the smallest canid, the Fennec Fox, to the Largest, the Gray Wolf.(continued...)
Where and how did dogs originate?
Some scientists believe that the earliest wild dog originated in North America fifteen to thirty-five million years ago, long before any men lived there. During the Eocene Epoch of the Cenozoic Era, some weasel-like critters called miacids developed into the earliest dogs, the canids. Those early dogs had short legs and long bodies and looked more like the modern cat than their dog descendents.Around 7 million years ago, a wolf-like animal called Tomarctus arrived on the scene. The wolf, coyote, fox, jackal, dog, and all the rest of the canines can call Tomarctus great-great-great-grandaddy. At the time of Tomarctus, there were 42 different kinds of Canids, all competing for pretty much the same space.Experts believe the earliest dogs looked like the feral dogs of today and that if modern dogs were allowed to interbreed they would revert to that type. In fact, skeletons of the earliest dogs and their wild wolf cousins can be tough to tell apart. The coyote is considered by some to be one of the last species of primitive dogs.Primitive dogs differed from cats and other carnivores in that they hunted in packs, developed a protective territorial instinct, and a sharply defined social order (alpha male, alpha female, etc). Dogs are without a doubt social animals and crave companionship.
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