The dog is classified as Canis lupus familiaris under the Biological Species
Concept and Canis familiaris under the Evolutionary Species Concept.[2]:p1
In 1758, the taxonomist Linnaeus published in Systema Naturae a categorization of species which included the Canis species. Canis is a Latin word meaning dog,[19] and the list included the dog-like carnivores: the domestic dog, wolves, foxes and jackals. The dog was classified as Canis familiaris,[20] which means "Dog-family"[21] or the family dog. On the next page he recorded the wolf as Canis lupus, which means "Dog-wolf".[22] In
1978, a review aimed at reducing the number of recognized Canis species proposed that "Canis dingo is now generally regarded as a distinctive feral domestic dog. Canis familiaris is used for domestic dogs, although taxonomically it should probably be synonymous with Canis lupus."[23] In
1982, the first edition of Mammal Species of the World listed Canis familiaris under Canis lupus with the comment: "Probably ancestor of and conspecific with the domestic dog, familiaris. Canis familiaris has page priority over Canis lupus, but both were published simultaneously in
Linnaeus (1758), and Canis lupus has been universally used for this species",[24] which avoided classifying the wolf as the family dog. The dog is now listed among the many other Latin-named subspecies of Canis lupus as Canis lupus familiaris.[1]
In 2003, the ICZN ruled in its Opinion 2027 that if wild animals and their domesticated derivatives are regarded as one species, then the scientific name of that species is the scientific name of the wild animal. In 2005, the third edition of Mammal Species of the World upheld Opinion 2027 with the name Lupus and the note: "Includes the domestic dog as a subspecies, with the dingo provisionally separate - artificial variants created by domestication and selective