Mondo Knows Facts
Dogs were the first domesticated animal
Bones and burials from over 15,000 years ago show the partnership had begun Genetic studies point to wolves as the wild ancestor, with the split happening well before farming. Early dogs may have lived near camps scavenging, then gradually worked with people. Breeds as we know them are much more recent. It sits in Mondo's animals collection, one of 200 facts that each trace back to the reference below.
Where this comes from
Facts that can change over time are reviewed and updated. If something here looks wrong, Mondo would rather know than be confidently incorrect.
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A dog became the first animal to orbit EarthLaika flew on Sputnik 2 in 1957 in a capsule that could not returnCats domesticated themselves around grain storesRodents in early farm stores drew wild cats into human settlementsDogs are trained to detect medical conditionsSome warn owners of changes in blood sugar by scentSilkworms have been farmed for thousands of yearsThe moth no longer survives well in the wild and depends on peopleA dog has around 300 million scent receptorsHumans carry closer to six million, and dogs dedicate far more brain to smellPotatoes were first farmed in the AndesAndean farmers domesticated the tuber thousands of years ago at high altitude
๐พ Animalsfact 182 of 200
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Tags: dogs, domestication, history
Dogs were the first domesticated animal: the short answers
- Where does this come from, and can I check it?
- Bones and burials from over 15,000 years ago show the partnership had begun. The figure is taken from Britannica, which is linked in full on this page. Every fact on Mondo Knows names its source rather than repeating an unsourced claim.
- Is this really a animals fact?
- Yes. It sits on the Animals shelf, one of 2,600 sourced facts grouped into space, animals, the human body, history, science and more. Category pages collect every fact in the same field.
- What else can I read about it?
- The links under the fact point to a quiz, game, puzzle or calculator on the same subject, and the shelf below shows related facts. The wording here is original, and quoted phrases are marked as quotations.