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ABSTRACT-- Human beings’ partnership with dogs has been thought to have originated approximately 14,000 years ago, based on fossilized remains. Recently, a sophisticated genetic analysis of 27 different populations of wolves and dogs from 67 breeds has shown that the origin of dogs is very old - perhaps 100,000 years. Researchers used analyses of mitochondrial DNA to determined that dogs are really gray wolves. They also determined that dog-ancestor-wolves originated between 60,000 and 135,000 years ago and evolved through a combination of human selective breeding and repeated crossings with wild wolves. Using the mitochondrial evidence, the researchers concluded that Coyote and other Canis species apparently have not contributed to the evolution of domesticated dogs. INTRODUCTION: The physical evidence of fossilized human and canine remains has suggested that dogs (Canis familiaris), first appeared about 14,000 years ago (Patterson, 1978), (Coren, 1994), (Bursch, 1998). Wayne and his colleagues hypothesized that dogs were really wolves (Canis lupus) in disguise. To test their theory, they collected tissue samples from 162 wolves from Europe, North America, Asia and Arabia, as well as from 140 dogs from 67 “pureâ€