Genetic and biological relationship between dogs and wolves?

*Slipping on in* The dog is a mammal in the order Carnivora. Dogs were first domesticated from wolves at least 17,000 years ago, but perhaps as early as 150,000 years ago based upon recent genetic fossil and DNA evidence though there is doubt about the accuracy of this mitochondrial DNA evidence. In this time, the dog has developed into hundreds of breeds with a great degree of variation.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dog

There is very little genetic difference between any dog and any wolf, coyote, or jackal, etc., so little, in fact, that genetic tests cannot tell how much wolf is in deliberately bred wolf-dogs. The domesticated canines and their wild cousins CAN interbreed.

The biggest difference is that dogs are domesticated, and wolves are wild animals. What that means is that dogs can be good pets and companions, while wolves are still wild and not suited to living with people. Because they are related, there are a lot of similarities, but wolves represent one end of the spectrum and domestic dogs the other.

Wolves are generally bigger and considerably more intelligent than dogs. They are certainly more aware of their environment than dogs, and respond to other animals and humans differently. Wolves don't bond with humans readily the way dogs will. Wolves have a complex pack structure that dogs don't, even when they go feral and pack up. Wolves are constantly testing each other's dominance, while dogs generally accept whatever established hierarchy they live in.

Wolves are active and able hunters, while many dog breeds have lost that talent. Wolves are stronger than dogs. Wolves pace, dogs trot. Dogs can be trained, wolves can't (with possible rare exceptions on both sides). In a wolf pack, only the alphas lift their legs to pee (even the alpha female will do this, though not necessarily all the time), and other pack members squat. The alphas will also prevent any other pack members from breeding, and when the pups are born, the whole pack helps raise them. Wolves mate for life (except rare occasions), dogs do not. Dogs go into heat twice a year, wolves only once a year.

Wolves are different from dogs by their skull's characteristics, especially the orbital angle, which is the angle between the top of the skull and the side of the skull at the eye socket. This angle is larger (53 degrees or more) in dogs and smaller (45 degrees or less) in wolves. Wolves also have a third larger brain than dogs. Dogs' teeth are smaller, their muzzle is shorter and broader, and their foreheads are broader. Dog's ears are generally more pointed and longer, while wolves' are shorter, wider, and more rounded. Wolves' feet are much larger and more splayed than dogs'. Wolves have a narrower chest and longer, thinner legs. Dogs lack the scent glands, called precaudal glands, underneath the base of the tail.

For even the most wolf-like dogs, there is a distinct difference in coloration. The colors are much more contrasted and not well-blended on the dog, whereas the wolf's coloration is not contrasted as much and well blended to produce many shades and colors.

Wolves are fascinating creatures but they aren't just big dogs. While they are the same genus as dogs (canis) they are a different species: the wolf is canis lupus, the dog is canis familiaris.

http://www.answerbag.com/q_view.php/39319

http://www.lioncrusher.com/animal.asp?animal=35&pa...

Domestic dogs and wolves are actually members of the SAME species, meaning they can all interbreed and have viable offspring. The many differences between the two (and between all the varieties of dogs, for that matter) are simply variations within the same species. By the way, other canine-like animals, like foxes, coyotes, etc. are different species.

How about a fox? Kinda dogs-like, yet no longer as a lot as a wolf. it really is because the straightforward ancestor of the dogs and the fox chop up into separate species lengthy earlier the dogs and the wolf. A horse and a donkey are proper, sufficient that they could mate and produce a mule, yet no longer close sufficient to have offspring that are fertile, because they are diverse species.

To keep the gene pool vibrant, German Shepards are breed with wild wolves. They are wolves?

(They are a little frisky for a while)

I know of coyote crosses. I don't know if they are sterile. (This defies the same species, Mules)

Isn't there a species name different?

Canis Lupus, Canis domesticus?

12,000-14,000 years is the figure usually used for the domestication of wolves. I'm not sure whether this is using genetic or palaentological evidence though. dogs are usually described as Canis familiaris, but more commonly nowadays as Canis lupus familiaris.