Barbara McQueen, age 12, of Kallispell, Mont., for her question:

WHERE DID DOGS ORIGINATE?

Scientists tell us that all dogs probably descended from an animal called the tomarctus. This animal lived about 15 million years ago. It looked very much like a wolf.

Descendants of the tomarctus developed into wolves, jackals, coyotes, foxes and other wild dogs that spread throughout the world.

During the Stone Age, 10,000 to 20,000 years ago, people who lived in Europe tamed the dogs and trained them to help track game.

Then about 8,000 years ago, the ancient Egyptians started raising greyhound like dogs to hunt antelope. A few thousand years later the Egyptians developed Saluki hunting dogs.

North American Indians started taming dogs about 4,000 years ago.