According to a new study of North American dog fossils up to 40 million years old, evolution in complete groups of predators could be directly as a result of climate change. The study has been published in the journal Nature Communications. Humans can, therefore, learn many new things regarding evolution.

According to Christine Janis, professor of ecology and evolutionary biology at Brown University, a former Brown Fulbright postdoctoral researcher who is at present a professor at the Universidad de Malaga in Spain, "It's reinforcing the idea that predators may be as directly sensitive to climate and habitat as herbivores. Although this seems logical, it hadn't been demonstrated before". Janis worked with lead author of the study Borja Figueirido.

As per reports, dogs belong to North America. As shown by fossils, around 40 million years ago, the species were small animals that would have resembled mongoose in place of any dogs that exist today. The animals were well-adapted to habitat of that time. According to experts, forelimbs of the animal were not for running purpose.

However, a few million years later, the global climate started cooling significantly and the Rocky Mountains in North America had hit a threshold of growth that led to much drier continental interior.

In order to find out effect of transition on the evolution of carnivores, Figueirido and the research team, together with Jack Tseng from the American Museum of Natural History in New York, analyzed the teeth and elbows of 32 species of dogs dating back millions of years.