Most dogs have some wolf DNA, scientists say. These breeds have more than others.
That is the discovery announced on Monday by U.S. scientists, who were surprised to find that nearly two thirds of all dog breeds have a detectable amount of wolf DNA.
And it is not genetic leftovers from when dogs originally evolved from wolves around 20,000 years ago, but instead suggests that domesticated dogs and wild wolves have interbred within the last few thousand years.
This does not mean that "wolves are coming into your house and mixing it up with your pet dog," Logan Kistler, a curator at the Smithsonian Museum of Natural History and co-author of a new study, told AFP.
It also seems to have influenced the size, smelling power and even personality of modern dog breeds, the scientists said.
"The majority of dogs today have low, but detectable levels of post domestication wolf ancestry that has shaped their evolution and conferred unique advantages to their survival in diverse human environments," the scientists conclude in a study published on Monday.
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