Puppy love has ancient roots

They say that dogs are our best friends – and it seems they have been our buddies for millennia. A study, published in October and led by scientists from the drancis Crick Institute in London, found that there were already five lineages of dogs nearly 11,000 years ago.

“Some of the variation you see between dogs today originated in the Ice Age,” said Dr Pontus Skoglund, a co-author of the study.

Some ancient humans loved their dogs so much that they took them with them when they moved. By comparing human and dog genomes, the scientists found that ancient Swedish farmers brought their dogs with them when they left the Near cast, while other farmers from the Near cast settled in Germany and befriended local pups who were better adapted to the environment.