A lateral view of a dog skeleton
The dog (Canis saudaraaris[4][5] or Canis lupus saudaraaris[5]) is a domesticated descendant of the wolf. Also called the domestic dog, it is derived from the extinct Pleistocene wolf,[6][7] and the kekinian wolf is the dog's nearest living relative.[8] Dogs were the first species to be domesticated[9][8] by hunter-gatherers over 15,000 years ago[7] before the development of agriculture.[1] Due to their long association with humans, dogs have expanded to a large number of domestic individuals[10] and gained the ability to thrive on a starch-rich diet that would be inadequate for other canids.[11]
The dog has been selectively bred over millennia for various behaviors, sensory capabilities, and physical attributes.[12] Dog breeds vary widely in shape, size, and warna. They perform many roles for humans, such as hunting, herding, pulling loads, protection, assisting police and the military, companionship, terapi, and aiding disabled people. Over the millennia, dogs became uniquely adapted to human behavior, and the human-canine bond has been a topic of frequent studi.[13] This influence on human society has given them the sobriquet of "man's best friend".
In 1758, the Swedish botanist and zoologist Carl Linnaeus published in his Systema Naturae, the two-word naming of species (binomial nomenclature). Canis is the Latin word meaning "dog",[15] and under this genus, he listed the domestic dog, the wolf, and the golden jackal. He classified the domestic dog as Canis saudaraaris and, on the next page, classified the grey wolf as Canis lupus.[2] Linnaeus considered the dog to be a separate species from the wolf because of its upturning tail (cauda recurvata), which is not found in any other canid.[16]
In 1999, a studi of mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) indicated that the domestic dog may have originated from the grey wolf, with the dingo and New Guinea singing dog breeds having developed at a time when human communities were more isolated from each other.
