Image: Wolf./Fremlin, Flickr. Malamute Image: Champion Cloud Burst's You're My Obsession./Brandon Keim, Flickr. Shar Pei Image: Grand Champion Ma-Auriga Sing Halleluja./Brandon Keim, Flickr. Afghan hound Image: Champion Fashionista of Damos./Brandon Keim, Flickr. Basenji Image: Basenjis./Brandon Keim, Flickr. Lhasa apso Image: Champion Nuseng's Oh What A Gal Singdu./Brandon Keim, Flickr. Mastiff Image: Champion Eastwinds Ivory Hotcider./Brandon Keim, Flickr. Shetland Sheepdog Image: Shetland Sheepdog./Brandon Keim, Flickr. Pharaoh Hound Image: Grand Champion Hallam's Busiris Ra Qena./Brandon Keim, Flickr.

Even as humans have homogenized other domestic animals, replacing nature's diversity with a few useful breeds, dog diversity has exploded. A kaleidoscope of shapes and sizes have come from an original stock of wolves; there are hundreds of breeds, so many that it was long impossible to determine where they'd all come from.

That diversity made dogs an interesting puzzle for geneticists. By mapping subtle differences in each breed's genes, searching for patterns of relationships and designing a tree to fit them, they could finally gain insight into this marvel of evolutionary engineering.

In 2004, the foundational analysis of purebred dog genetics was published in Science. The resulting tree was profoundly asymmetrical. After wolves, just four groups sat its base: Asia's shar-pei, along with shiba inu, akita and chow chow; central Africa's basenji; malamutes from the Arctic, along with Siberian huskies and samoyeds; and from the Middle East, Afghan hounds and salukis.

Then, on one last branch, came every other dog breed. If the tree was really a tree, it would topple immediately to one side.

But within that hodgepodge branch – the product, in part, of a Victorian-inspired predilection for fanciful mixes – were three basic groups: the Lhasa apso, shih tzu, Pekingese and Tibetan terrier; the mastiff, plus bulldogs, boxers, bull terriers, rottweilers, German shepherds and Bernese mountain dogs; and Shetland sheepdogs, along with collies, Belgian tervurens, Belgian sheepdogs, Irish wolfhounds, greyhounds, borzoi and Saint Bernards.

Ibizan and Pharaoh hounds, long thought to be ancient breeds, actually proved to be recent re-creations, with modern breeds used to revive ancient combinations of traits.

On the following pages are pictures of these ancient (and one not-so-ancient) breeds, taken Feb. 14 and 15 at the Westminster Kennel Club dog show in New York City. More photographs of other breeds can be found on Flickr.

See Also: