Overview of Dog Domestication

Traditionally, humans acquired canines to serve functional purposes (Marston & Bennett, 2003). We have been able to document a relationship between humans and dogs as far back as twelve thousand years. As our ancestors began to become less nomadic, they settled down and started forming small communities where they learned to grow crops and raise livestock (Horowitz, 2009). These settled communities were sufficiently stable and it wasn’t long before wild animals began noticing that they produced a large amount of waste. Wolves are scavengers as well as hunters and may have been some of the first animals to discover this squander treasure (Horowitz, 2009).

The original species domesticated at the time, was the gray wolf, or Canis lupus. Dog domestication began for a myriad of reasons, protection, food, fur, and to act as a beast of burden. Even today, domestication of dogs continues in numerous ways in order to create a 'better' companion. Originally, some authors wrote that dogs were descended from a species of wild dog, now extinct, that was distinct from wolves; this has since been disproved. The earliest carnivorous fossils, that can be linked to some variation of wolf or fox, are the Miacids that lived during the Eocene period, approximately 38 to 56 million years ago.

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.

The three following publications focus on these areas, and most show similar findings. Wang et al. 2013: Much unlike studies for the genetic component of phenotypic variation among modern breeds, the first transition stage involving transition from wolves to ancestral dogs has been understudied (Wang et al. 2013). Previous studies of the origin of dogs using mtDNA as well as Y chromosome has identified indigenous dogs from southeast Asia as the “basal lineage connecting to wild grey wolves” (Wang et al.

http://www.nia.nih.gov/health/publication/genetics-aging-our-genes/how-can-we-find-aging-genes-humans The common household dog is not naturally occurring in nature but rather an evolutionary product of wolves, dog’s closest living relatives, which were domesticated. As wolves were domesticated to become work and household animals they developed and changed drastically to suit this roll and evolved on a genetic level which resulted in a change in the genotypes and as well as the phenotypes which has given rise to the common domestic dogs that we know today. BREEDING OF DOGS; Different breeds of dogs have different genotypes and phenotypes which in turn give rise to different characteristics and behavioral patterns, for example Labrador retrievers are social, Dalmatians are hyper, and Australian shepherds are smart (Scott & Fuller, 1974). All of these factors are determined by the genetics of the dog, which comes about from the genes. Genes are passes down from parent to offspring but not all genes are passed down, only the strongest dominant genes are passed down and are clearly evident.

"Dog DNA Has Role in Developing New Therapies for Human Cancers." ScienceDaily. ScienceDaily, 18 Mar. 2014. Web.

It took a long time to domesticate the dog, and it didn’t just happen overnight. Dogs are a man’s best friend, have evolved from wolves, and then were domesticated. We know dogs as loving and caring animals, but many hears ago they weren’t. The dog is a carnivorous, domesticated wolf (Canis lupus familiaris) of the family Canidae, to which the jackal and fox also belong. The dog is descended from the wolf.

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.

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.

It was evolution from wolves in the form of natural and artificial selection that brought dogs into existence (Harris 3). This is the most modern and widely excepted theory at this time, however this was not always the case considering the theory of evolution in of itself is relatively new in our society. After evolution as a theory was accepted there were several other variations on the theory such as, the evolution being from jackals opposed to wolves, and artificial selection being the only form of evolution to have taken place. According to Jarret A Lobell and Eric A Powell of Archaeology magazine “The idea that dogs were domesticated from jackals was long ago discarded in favor of the notion that dogs descend from the gray wolf (2)”. As for the theory that artificial selection ... ... middle of paper ... ...tion, including their initial evolution, their domestication, and the roles they played in human society throughout the ages.