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Domestic dog Temporal range: 0.0330Ma Pleistocene Recent Nine different breeds of dogs. Conservation status

Domesticated

Species synonymy

The domestic dog (Canis lupus familiaris) is a usually furry, carnivorous[2][3][4] member of the canidae family. Domestic dogs are commonly known as "man's best friend". The dog was the first domesticated animal[5][6] and has been widely kept as a working, hunting, and pet companion. It is estimated there are between 700 million and one billion domestic dogs, making them the most abundant member of order Carnivora.[7][8]

The term "domestic dog" is generally used for both of the domesticated and feral varieties. The English word dog comes from Middle English dogge, from Old English docga, a "powerful dog breed".[9] The term may possibly derive from Proto-Germanic *dukkn, represented in Old English finger-docce ("finger-muscle").[10] The word also shows the familiar petname diminutive -ga also seen in frogga "frog", picga "pig", stagga "stag", wicga "beetle, worm", among others.[11] The term dog may ultimately derive from the earliest layer of Proto-Indo-European vocabulary, reflecting the role of the dog as the earliest domesticated animal.[12]

In 14th-century England, hound (from Old English: hund) was the general word for all domestic canines, and dog referred to a subtype of hound, a group including the mastiff. It is believed this "dog" type was so common, it eventually became the prototype of the category "hound".[13] By the 16th century, dog had become the general word, and hound had begun to refer only to types used for hunting.[14]Hound, cognate to German Hund, Dutch hond, common Scandinavian hund, and Icelandic hundur, is ultimately derived from the Proto-Indo-European *kwon- "dog", found in Sanskrit kukuur (),[15]Welsh ci (plural cwn), Latin canis, Greek kn, and Lithuanian u.[16]

In breeding circles, a male canine is referred to as a dog, while a female is called a bitch[17] (Middle English bicche, from Old English bicce, ultimately from Old Norse bikkja). A group of offspring is a litter. The father of a litter is called the sire, and the mother is called the dam. Offspring are, in general, called pups or puppies, from French poupe, until they are about a year old. The process of birth is whelping, from the Old English word hwelp (cf. German Welpe, Dutch welp, Swedish valpa, Icelandic hvelpur).[18] The term "whelp" can also be used to refer to the young of any canid, or as a (somewhat archaic) alternative to "puppy".

In 1753, Carl Linnaeus listed among the types of quadrupeds familiar to him the Latin word for dog, canis. Among the species within this genus, Linnaeus listed the fox, as Canis vulpes, wolves (Canis lupus), and the domestic dog, (Canis canis). In later editions, Linnaeus dropped Canis canis and greatly expanded his list of the Canis genus of quadrupeds, and by 1758 included alongside the foxes, wolves, and jackals and many more terms that are now listed as synonyms for domestic dog, including aegyptius (hairless dog), aquaticus, (water dog), and mustelinus (literally "badger dog"). Among these were two that later experts have been widely used for domestic dogs as a species: Canis domesticus and, most predominantly, Canis familiaris, the "common" or "familiar" dog.[19]

By 1993 with advancements in molecular biology, the mitochondrial DNA mtDNA analysis of extant (i.e. living today) Canidea species indicated that "The domestic dog is an extremely close relative of the gray wolf, differing from it by at most 0.2% of mtDNA sequence.... In comparison, the gray wolf differs from its closest wild relative, the coyote, by about 4% of mitochondrial DNA sequence."[20] In the same year, the domestic dog Canis familiaris was reclassified as Canis lupus familiaris, a subspecies of the gray wolf Canis lupus in Mammal Species of the World.[21] By 1999, further genetic analysis indicated that the domestic dog may have emerged from multiple wolf populations.[22][23] Based on these latest two pieces of research and the reference reclassification, canis lupus familiaris is the name for the taxon listed by ITIS.[24] However, canis familiaris is also accepted due to a nomenclature debate regarding the naming of wild and domestic sub-species.[25]

As of January 2014, a mtDNA study of extant and extinct dog and wolf specimens raises a question about this classification. Refer Origin and Gray wolf.

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