TOMSK, Apr 12 – RIA Tomsk. The scientist of Tomsk State University (TSU) joined the international group, which intends to put an end to the long-standing dispute about the place and time of the appearance of dogs, the press service of the university reports on Wednesday.
According to TSU, humanity long ago, but still unsuccessfully tries to find the answer to questions – who, where and when tamed a wolf and how the transformation of a wild animal into domestic dog happened. On this topic a number of scientific hypotheses were put forward, in many respects contradicting each other. The set of the countries and regions – modern China, India, the Middle East, Europe, Africa applies for the status of the place of "birth" of dogs.
"To put the end to this dispute was established the international group of scientists, which entered the leading researcher of TSU and Institute of Geology and Mineralogy of the Siberian Branch of the Russian Academy of Science, the associated employee of University of Arizona (USA) Yaroslav Kuzmin", – is said in the report.
It is noted that in the project are engaged paleontologists, archaeologists, anthropologists, molecular biologists and geneticists from different countries – from Great Britain to the USA and Japan. They will study more than 8 thousand valuable and informative artifacts: 4 thousand lower jaws, 3,5 thousand molars and 670 almost full skulls."There are reasons to assume that the immediate ancestor of the first dog was not the modern gray wolves that live in abundance throughout all Eurasia, but the ancient (over 15-20 thousand) representatives of canids, who could differ significantly in size and shape from today's wolves", – is said in the report.
It is added that more details about the research can be found in the interview of the scientist on the site of TSU.