Once a Wolf Quotes

“As the dust settles on the controversies still hovering over the timing and location of the transition from wolf to dog, one thing is certain. It all began a very long time ago.”
― Bryan Sykes, Once a Wolf: The Science Behind Our Dogs' Astonishing Genetic Evolution

“clearly both related to branch I European dogs, though the ages of the fossils (1,000 and 8,500 years BP respectively) mean that they must have arrived well before the first European settlement in the fifteenth century. These dogs accompanied the indigenous Native Americans who had arrived earlier from Asia. None, however, had mitochondrial DNA remotely like that from American wolves. This has to mean that Native American dogs were ultimately descended from European and not American wolves.”
― Bryan Sykes, Once a Wolf: The Science Behind Our Dogs' Astonishing Genetic Evolution

“The resulting tree, or phylogram, to use the proper name, again recognised the four main branches (I–IV in the figure on page 17) of modern dog breeds initially published by Wayne and Vilà. The results were fascinating. The fossil dogs on three of the four branches (I, III, IV) of the tree are closely related to modern breeds while the rare fourth, mainly Scandinavian, branch (II) is closest to modern wolves from Sweden and Ukraine. One possible explanation is that dogs on this branch, which include the Norwegian Elkhound and the Jämthund, acquired their mitochondrial DNA from wild wolves in the recent past, after the advent of agriculture.”
― Bryan Sykes, Once a Wolf: The Science Behind Our Dogs' Astonishing Genetic Evolution