The first study on the evolution of the dhole was conducted by paleontologist Erich Thenius, who found that dholes descend from an animal which looked like a golden jackal and which lived in the Pleistocene. The earliest known member of the genus "Cuon" is "Cuon majori", which lived during the Villafranchian period in the early Pleistocene. "C. majori" looked more like other species in the genus "Canis" than modern dholes.