An archaeological excavation in southern Spain has uncovered the 2000-year-old remains of a lapdog that may have been born thousands of kilometres to the east, a discovery that hints at a long-distance trade in lapdogs across the Roman world.

The first domestic dogs resembled wolves and may have been used for hunting . But by the time the Roman Empire emerged , selective breeding in Europe and Asia had begun to produce dogs in all manner of shapes and sizes – including tiny …