Roots of the dog

Evolution of early canids

source: Karen E Lange
National Geographic vol 201 no 1 January 2002
starts p8, 2pages long
from 'Wolf to Woof' starts p2, 30 pages long

Early ancestors of the dog are thought to include Epicyon, a powerful canid that lived eight million years ago. There were also Eucyon, which were about the size of modern foxes. It was the Eucyon which survived climate cooling, while big prey and Epicyon both became extinct. Eucyon evolved into wolves, and wolves are thought to have travelled to Arctic North America some 800,000 years ago.
DO,BC