New discoveries of early domestic dogs in Israel and Germany, beginning more than 14,000 years ago, push back their first arrival in the fossil record and provide tantalizing evidence that China, not Europe or the Middle East, was the center of first domestication.
Canids are the most widely spread living carnivores in the world and, in some continents, the dominant predators. This book captures the excitement of recent advances in understanding the natural history of this family or carnivores and provides an unprecedented visual reference for specialists as well as general readers.
PrefaceAcknowledgments1. Dogs: Methods of Study and the Place of Dogs in Nature2. The Origin of Canids and Other Doglike Carnivorous Mammals3. Diversity: Who Is Who in the Dog Family4. Anatomy and Function: How the Parts Work5. Hunting and Social Activity6. Changing Environments and Canid Evolution7. Going Places: Braving New Worlds8. Domestic DogsAppendix: Canid Species and ClassificationGlossaryFurther ReadingIndex
An easy-to-read text, accompanied by Anton's marvelous illustrations... Recommended. Choice 12/1/08 A definitive, readable treatment of the evolution of the canine clan. Fossil News 6/1/09 Sets a new standard... With Anton's imagery, Wang and Tedford's Dogs is nothing short of wonderful. American Paleomtologist Vol 17, No 2 A must-read for dog junkies. -- H.J. Kirchhoff Toronto Globe & Mail 05-14-10 Nothing short of wonderful. -- Richard A. Kissel American Paleontologist Summer 2009

Xiaoming Wang is a curator of vertebrate paleontology at the Natural History Museum of Los Angeles County and has been studying the evolutionary history of the family Canidae for the past twenty years. In collaboration with Richard H. Tedford, he has published three volumes on the fossil canids of North America. Richard H. Tedford is curator emeritus in the Department of Vertebrate Paleontology at the American Museum of Natural History. Mauricio Anton is a paleontological artist based at the National Museum of Natural Sciences, Madrid. Among his books are, with Jordi Agusti, Mammoths, Sabertooths, and Hominids: 65 Million Years of Mammalian Evolution in Europe and, with Alan Turner, The Big Cats and Their Fossil Relatives: An Illustrated Guide to Their Evolution and Natural History and Evolving Eden: An Illustrated Guide to the Evolution of the African Large Mammal Fauna.