Genomic studies

Genomic studies suggest modern wolves and dogs descend from a common ancestral wolf population[19][20][21] that existed 20,000 years ago.[19] Studies in 2017 and 2018 found that the Himalayan wolf is part of a lineage that is basal to other wolves and split from them

691,000–740,000 years ago.[22][23] Other wolves appear to have originated in Beringia in an expansion that was driven by the huge ecological changes during the close of the Late Pleistocene.[23] A study in 2016 indicates that a population bottleneck was

followed by a rapid radiation from an ancestral population at a time during, or just after, the Last Glacial Maximum. This implies the original morphologically diverse wolf populations were out-competed and replaced by more modern wolves.[24]

A 2016 genomic study suggests that Old World and New World wolves split around 12,500 years ago followed by the divergence of the lineage that led to dogs from other Old World wolves around 11,100–12,300 years ago.[21] An extinct Late Pleistocene wolf ma

y have been the ancestor of the dog,[25][15] with the dog’s similarity to the extant wolf being the result of genetic admixture between the two.[15] The dingo, Basenji, Tibetan Mastiff and Chinese indigenous breeds are basal members of the domestic dog clade. The divergence time for wolves in Europe, the Middle East, and Asia is estimated to be fairly recent at around 1,600 years ago. Among New World wolves, the Mexican wolf diverged around 5,400 years ago.[21]