Dogs today come in a staggering variety of shapes and sizes. When did all start? Well, scientists have now discovered that this diversity is not a modern invention: scientists have found that prehistoric dogs already showed significant differences in skulls at least 11,000 years ago. By analyzing 643 skulls of ancient dogs and their wolf ancestors, researchers revealed that cranial diversity emerged soon after dogs split from wolves.
Early dogs were already diverse
Using 3D models of skulls, the team found that early dogs had proportionally shorter and wider skulls than wolves. These animals, living across Eurasia, already represented roughly half of the skull diversity seen in modern dogs, showing early adaptation to different ecological and cultural contexts.
These findings overturn the idea that extreme dog shapes only appeared recently. While modern breeds like pugs or bulldogs did not yet exist, humans were already selecting dogs for hunting, guarding, herding, and other roles, driving early morphological differences.
Dogs were more than just tools, they were companions and symbols in human society. Their importance: over millennia, humans shaped dogs for function, culture, and identity, making the early variation we see in prehistoric skulls a foundation for the incredible diversity we know today. The study was published on Thursday in the journal Science.