A team of scientists measured a damaged 2,000-year-old dog skull discovered at a Roman site in Turkey. They discovered that not only did Romans breed a small flat-faced dog, similar to a French...
Roughly 18,000 years ago, hunter-gatherers in New Guinea loved nothing more than a good fried egg and a lump of roasted bird meat. And to enjoy these treats more easily, they turned to bird breeding...
Genetic breeding programs in the ancient Arctic required fresh DNA from faraway places. Therefore, long-distance trade routes rang with the barks and howls of horny Arctic dogs as they marched...
Giant cranes were one of the most popular pets in medieval Ireland. However, the luxurious cranes all but vanished from the country over 300 years ago, until recently when a mating pair was spotted...
According to an extensive DNA analysis of cat genes the domestic cat is descended from wild cats that were tamed twice; once in the Near East and then in Egypt. The study suggests that cats lived for...
Dogs in Prehistory The early ancestors of Gray Wolves were a group of carnivores named the creodonts that roamed the northern hemisphere between 100 and 120 million years ago. About 55 million years...
A recent study of the DNA of Tibetans has looked at the gene underlying their ability to live in the low-oxygen conditions at high altitudes. It found that this gene has come from an unexpected...
Neanderthals and humans branched off about 600,000 years ago, possibly because of genetic incompatibility in the context of the Y chromosome, a team of researchers has announced. There was some...
A group of researchers is looking to resurrect aurochs, a species of wild cattle which disappeared in the first half of the 17th century. It's another attempt to bring this animal back to life - Nazi...
A new study reveals that the origin of man’s best friend may not have been where, or when, the scientific community previously believed. The analysis of a variety of ancient canine DNA has also...