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We love our dogs, and they love us.
我们都喜欢汪星人，而它们也爱着我们。
But it hasn’t always been that way.
但是它们以前可并非如此友善。
Dogs evolved from wolves. But when—and where?
狗是从狼进化而来，但是发生在何时何地？
Some have argued that humans domesticated wolves into dogs in Asia or the Middle East about 12,000 years ago, as the rise of agriculture allowed us to settle down.
据说在大约12000年以前，随着农业兴起使得人类可以稳定的在某一地区安顿下来，所以亚洲或者中东地区的古人类驯养狼群成为狗群。
But the bones of ancient dogs, dug up from caves in Belgium and Siberia, tell a different story.
但在比利时和西伯利亚挖掘出的古代狗狗们的骨头却讲述着截然不同的故事。
A team of geneticists extracted DNA from those bones, as well as from 49 wolves and from 77 modern dogs of various breeds.
一组遗传学家们提取出这些骨头中的DNA遗传物质，并且和49只狼，77只现代犬类进行比对，
By comparing the DNA from dogs and their ancestors, the scientists were able to reconstruct a family tree.
通过对比古代狗祖先和现代狗后代的遗传信息，科学家们就能够重新构建它们的家族进化史。
The work appears in the journal Science.
该研究已经在《科学》杂志上发表。
The geneticists conclude that dogs were probably domesticated in Europe, most likely between 19,000 and 30,000 years ago, when we humans were still hunting and gathering—and leaving carcasses and trash piles behind.
遗传学家们表示狗类很有可能是在欧洲被驯化的，大约是在距今19000到30000年前，但那时我们人类仍然以捕猎和群居而生—并且迁徙后便将动物尸体以及其它垃圾弃之不顾。
Those wolves that overcame their natural fear of people might have had easy meals.
而克服了惧怕人类天性的这些狼群或许能够更容易找到食物。
And now we have a better idea of just who let the dogs in.
而现在我们对狗类的起源有更好的解释。
