Scientists have done well in scouring the DNA of humans to track our origins to the African continent.

But the ancient origins of an animal that is an honorary member of many human families has remained in doubt: We still don’t know where dogs came from.

A group of scientists who are in the middle of a grand examination of canine fossils and modern DNA proposed Thursday to turn the whole conversation on its head.

Suppose dogs didn’t evolve in one place, they suggested, but two. What if domestication of ancient wolves happened in both Asia and Europe — different wolves, different people?