We know that dogs are man’s best friend, but new DNA has confirmed that they are in fact our oldest and closest companions, too.
The study, which was conducted at London’s Crick Institute, found that dogs were domesticated before any other known species. Interestingly, it discovered that humans have had pet dogs for around 11,000 years, showing just how far back our love for them really goes.
Shining light on the “inextricable bond between dogs and humans”, the study is based on DNA from 27 ancient canine specimens from around Europe, Siberia and the Near East.
“Dogs are our oldest and closest animal partner. Using DNA from ancient dogs is showing us just how far back our shared history goes and will ultimately help us understand when and where this deep relationship began,” Greger Larson, a co-author from the University of Oxford, told BBC News.
Elsewhere in the research, they also found that the genetic patterns of dogs were fairly similar to that of humans. This is because when humans adopted dogs, they took them with them wherever they moved and shifted, strengthening their bond.

Anders Bergström, lead author and post-doctoral researcher at the Crick, also added: “If we look back more than four or five thousand years ago, we can see that Europe was a very diverse place when it came to dogs. Although the European dogs we see today come in such an extraordinary array of shapes and forms, genetically they derive from only a very narrow subset of the diversity that used to exist.”