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Wolf Genetic Ancestry
Name: Morgan
Status: student
Grade: 6-8
Location: CA
Country: USA
Date: N/A
Question:
What did the gray wolf evolve from?
Replies:
I Googled Grey Wolf Evolution and found this:
http://www.wolfcountry.net/information/WolfOrigins.html
Wolf ancestors began to develop in the Paleocene, about sixty million years
ago. By the Miocene, about twenty million years ago, canines and felines had
branched into two separate families. In one ancestor of the wolf, Tomarctus,
the fifth toe on the hind leg became vestigial and is evidenced today by the
dew claw on both wolves and dogs.
Research of wolf history by Robert Wayne at the University of California
suggests that a number of wolflike canids diverged from a common ancestor
about two to three million years ago. The first gray wolf,(Canis Lupis),
probably appeared in Eurasia sometime in the early Pleistocene period about
a million years ago. Around 750,000 years ago, it is thought to have
migrated to North America.
You might also Google Gray Wolf Evolution and see what you get.
Sincere regards,
Mike Stewart
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Update: June 2012
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