But the gradual evolution of wolves into dogs is not necessarily the result of domestication by the ancients. Researchers say that dogs may domesticate themselves by looking for humans and eating human leftovers.
Extended data:
No one knows exactly when the first interaction between man and wolf took place. Some scientists think it may be 50,000 years ago, because it took wild wolves at least so long to show today's genetic differences. At that time, humans and wolves were distributed in many places on the earth's surface, and the evolution process may have occurred in several different areas.
Some scholars believe that wolves were domesticated from wild wolves to domestic animals, that is, dogs, before14,000 years, even before16,000 years in Southeast Asia, and were used for playing, hunting and housekeeping.
There is a consensus that dogs originated from wolves, but there are different opinions about the specific place of birth and time. The earliest evidence of dog fossils comes from a mandible fossil in Germany 14000 years ago. These archaeological evidences support that dogs originated in southwest Asia or Europe. On the other hand, the characteristics of dog skeleton identification suggest that dogs may have originated from wolves, thus putting forward the origin theory of East Asian dogs.
In addition, different breeds of dogs are very diverse in morphology, which seems to be inclined to the hypothesis that dogs originated from wolves of different geographical groups. Archaeology alone can hardly provide reliable clues about the origin of dogs.
References:
Baidu encyclopedia-dog