Man´s Best Friend: Dogs

Domestication of Dogs Humans know dogs as a sweet and loving animal that wants to be loved, or also a man’s best friend, but until they were domesticated, they weren’t always like that. Even though many people think that the dogs were domesticated from wolves, not many people truly knows what kind of wolf that the dogs domesticated from. Researchers think that the gray wolf is the primary target of the domestication of dogs. The scientists believe that the dog comes from the gray wolf and the dogs have similar DNA in their body. It took a long time to domesticate the dog, and it didn’t just happen overnight.

Wang et al. (2013) suggested that domestication of dogs may have been a continuous process beginning with commensal living and hunting between humans and scavenging wolves that were excluded from hunting packs. A series of evolutionary events selecting for genes in dogs, as well as parallel selection of genes in humans and dogs, lead to the modern day fully domest... ... middle of paper ... ...on phenotypic traits were more intense for breeding programs compared to behaviour traits. Conclusion: Dog domestication origin appears to be highly complex and can still not be fully understood from a genetics perspective. Geographic origin of dog domestication as somewhere in southeastern Asia, and Chinese Native dogs most closely related to ancestral dogs was a consistent finding among researchers (Wang et al.

If other animals, like silver foxes, domesticate similarly to the way a dog evolves then why were dogs domesticated rather than a different species? The topic of dog domestication poses many unanswered questions. When and where did wolves first interact with humans? How did these two different species interact and why? Even with the species barrier, humans and wolves have a lot in common.

Now, wolves gradually evolved into dogs. A wolf and a dog are the same species. They also have the same DNA. Hunting dogs are more related to wolves. Some people long ago tried to breed dogs by changing their features.

Why did we make wolves into our buddies? Why not chimps or some other kind of primate? The answer lies in a few different reasons. Our old pals, even going back to Canis lupus, the gray wolf (the original ancestor of most modern dogs), have human-like qualities. Wolves are clever hunters and gatherers, especially the gray wolf.

Wolves are scavengers as well as hunters and may have been some of the first animals to discover this squander treasure (Horowitz, 2009). The least fearful of these wolves became increasingly undaunted by the presence of the unfamiliar humans. Together the two species began to tolerate one another through prolonged encounters until finally, humans began taking in a few pups as “pets” or, in times of hardship, “food.” Eventually, our ancestors began intentionally breeding these “domesticated” wolves to serve as assistant hunters and protectors (Horowitz, 2009). We can only surmise that the functionality of these domestic wolves served a great purpose; for what other reason would justify letting a meat-eater into one’s home? It would be difficult to provide provisions for such an animal and if one were unsuccessful, they befall a risk of becoming their pet wolf’s next meal.

Could it be that dogs are merely tools of our own development, and we treasure the fact that they are so easily morphed? However, without any question, dogs are no longer the wild untamable wolf that they once were. Now, traits derived from the wild and wicked wolf lay dormant in our companion, the one that lies so peacefully at our feet. Although it’s not easily traceable as to when dogs became apparent in human lives, it’s safe to say that most humans are rather glad they, dogs, are here.

. ., competition by the wolf for man’s livestock, and the possible competition by the wolf for wild animals that man regards as game” (289). Each concern needs to be addressed to move to move arguments beyond social threats to ecological issues. The first threat, the danger of wolves to humans, is rarely known outside of fairy-tales. The only existent evidence of wolf-induced danger remains in countries with less wild prey, more protection of domesticated animals, and less protection of young children than in the U.S. (Mech 291).

The Dog Domestic dog, carnivorous mammal, generally considered the first domesticated animal. The domesticated dog has coexisted with human beings as a working partner and household pet in all eras and cultures since the days of the cave dwellers. It is generally believed that the direct ancestor of the domestic dog is the wolf, originally found throughout Europe, Asia, and North America. Remains of a dog, estimated to be 10,500 years old, have been found in Idaho. TAXONOMY Kingdom: Animalia Phylum: Chordata Class: Mammalia Order: Carnivora Family: Canidae Genus: Canis Species: Canis familiaris ECOLOGY & HABITAT Little is known about wild dogs of the past but that they are carnivores: hunters and scavengers.

Over generations, natural selections would favor tameness and facilitate its spread through the scavenger wolf population. This then gave rise to dogs. Whether dogs arose ... ... middle of paper ... ... Their results suggest that a few SNPs of dominant effect (2 to 6 in general) may account for large amounts of morphological differences in dog breeds (70%). This suggest that the evolution of dogs from wolves may be the result of a few very significant point mutations that swept across the population because they produced the traits desirable to humans. In summary, while the video provides two possible and seemingly logical models for the evolution of dogs, it fails to account for the genetic basis of selection and other possible mechanisms of evolution.