There are many researchers who claim that origin of dogs can be traced to Europe. They also believe that gray wolves are the ancestors of ‘man’s best friend’. But a new study has suggested that all the previous claims are not true as dogs could have originated from Central Asia, as per report of the New York Times.

Researchers studied dogs from around the world and found that the animal could have originated in Central Asia. Laura M. Shannon and Adam R. Boyko from Cornell University, and an international team of researchers, studied more than 4,000 dogs of about 161 breeds. They also picked more than 500 dogs from villages in 38 countries. After the study, the researchers concluded that Central Asia is the place where dogs originated.

Shannon, lead researcher of the study, said dogs that were picked from villages had wider variety of genetic differences than the purebred dogs. It was village dogs that provided better sources of historical data to the researchers, according to Shannon.

Peter Savolainen, a researcher from the Royal Institute of Technology, said, “It’s a really comprehensive work including all kinds of markers, and a fairly good geographical coverage. So, it gives a good picture of the overall genetic relations among today’s dogs”. Savolainen sampled dogs from different regions of the world to find their origins.

Dr. Larson, who was not part of the study, said the study is surprising and there should be further testing of the findings.