From Newfies to Yorkies, from Weimaraners to water spaniels, from Dalmatians to dachshunds, as I incredulously close this book I seem to hear mocking barks and deep, baying howls of derision from 500 breeds of dogs — every one descended from a timber wolf within a time frame so short as to seem, by geological standards, instantaneous.

–Richard Dawkins, review of Michael Behe’s The Edge of Evolution: The Search for the Limits of Darwinism, New York Times, July 1, 2007

As scientific puzzles go, the origin of dogs may not be as important as the origin of the universe. But it strikes closer to home, and it almost seems harder to answer.

–“Deeper Digging Needed to Decode a Best Friend’s Genetic Roots,” New York Times, May 21, 2012
Photo credit: “Staffordshire Bull Terrier at the 2007 Westminster Kennel Club Dog Show”/Wikicommons.