[T]he ancient origins of an animal that is an honorary member of many human families has remained in doubt: We still don’t know where dogs came from.
A group of scientists who are in the middle of a grand examination of canine fossils and modern DNA proposed Thursday to turn the whole conversation on its head.
Suppose dogs didn’t evolve in one place, they suggested, but two. What if domestication of ancient wolves happened in both Asia and Europe — different wolves, different people?
Or even more likely, in several places, by many different peoples.
h/t Canadian Observer
Dogs are more than man’s best friend: They may be partners in humans’ evolutionary journey, according to a new study.
The study shows that dogs split from gray wolves about 32,000 years ago, and that since then, domestic dogs’ brains and digestive organs have evolved in ways very similar to the brains and organs of humans.
The findings suggest a more ancient origin for dog domestication than previously suggested. They also hint that a common environment drove both dog and human evolution for thousands of years.
“As domestication is often associated with large increases in population density and crowded living conditions, these ‘unfavorable’ environments might be the selective pressure that drove the rewiring of both species,” the researchers wrote in their article, published today (May 14) in the journal Nature Communications.
http://www.livescience.com/31997-dogs-and-humans-evolved-together.html
Dogs and wolves are part of the rich palette of predators and scavengers that co-evolved with herding ungulates about 10 Ma BP (million years before present). During the Ice Age, the gray wolf, Canis lupus, became the top predator of Eurasia. Able to keep pace with herds of migratory ungulates wolves became the first mammalian “pastoralists”. Apes evolved as a small cluster of inconspicuous tree dwelling and fruit-eating primates. Our own species separated from chimpanzee-like ancestors in Africa around 6 Ma BP and– apparently in the wider context of the global climate changes of the Ice Age–walked as true humans (Homo erectus) into the open savanna.
Thus an agile tree climber transformed into a swift,cursorial running ape, with the potential for adopting the migratory life style that had become essential for the inhabitants of the savanna and steppe. In the absence of fruit trees, early humans turned into omnivorous gatherers and scavengers. They moved into the steppe of Eurasia and became skilled hunters.
Sometime during the last Ice Age, our ancestors teamed up with pastoralist wolves. First, presumably,some humans adopted the wolves’ life style as herd followers and herders of reindeer and other hoofed animals. Wolves and humans had found their match.
We propose that first contacts between wolves and humans were truly mutual, and that the subsequent changes in both wolves and humans are understood best as co-evolution.
http://www4.uwsp.edu/psych/s/275/science/coevolution03.pdf
So have they found the “missing link” of human reincarnation ? I am hoping that Muzlims get reincarnated as dogs … so they can learn some appreciation for man’s best friend. Although it appears more likely that Muzlims have already been reincarnated from poisonous snakes. Maybe some Hindu here can help me out ?
So where did sled dogs come from? Come on Mr Scientist. Answer please. Crickets.
DNA testing shows that they all came off the bARK about 3967.3257490123 years ago, butt the bible says it was 3 minutes longer than that, or did your bible barker delete that part?
It’s quite obvious that dogs are not descended from crickets. My own dog, a 5 month old Great Dane, just weighed in at 96 lbs. Sadly for me he woke up with the runs this morning after suffering an allergic reaction to a bee sting (he likes to eat bees – snaps them out of mid-air like a complete idiot and then swells up like Harold Walowitz after a Snickers bar snack down).
I don’t know about anyone else, but I contend that ADONAI, God, specifically made domestic animals for us so that they would be a blessing to us. And they have been.
Look at how dogs have helped humans in so many different ways: unconditional friendship, service, rescue. (People with PTSD seem to recover more quickly and easily when taking care of a dog.) Cats give comfort to many people. Cows, sheep, goats, and other farm animals provide food for us: milk, cheese, cream, and meat.
To me, domestic animals such as dogs are yet one more of God’s blessings to us.
Moving further away from the actual time “it happened” just increases speculation, that wasn’t speculated before.
We don’t know everything and never will. By everything I mean everything, and by never … I mean never.
Feel free to guess. Feel is the operative word here.
What I’d like to know is why wolves stopped turning into dogs? If the theory is true, that should still be happening. With all the intermediate living stages as proof.
Why did it stop?
The Monks of new Skete. Book is Bless the Dog. Buy it.
I’ll surmise that only a few adult wolves were amenable to domestication. Perhaps a wounded wolf was found by a human, nursed back to health, and decided to stay for the benefits human companionship provided. I’ll further guess that most early cases of wolf domestication involved humans taking wolf pups from the den and raising them in a human ‘pack’. Only the wolves that bonded with humans gradually turned into dogs, and most wolves stayed wild. Also coyotes, jackals, and perhaps dingos may have been domesticated like wolves.
What’s your theory?
I guess I don’t have that much imagination to make up a story 🙂
You wouldn’t be much of a scientist if you couldn’t postulate theories [or ‘making up stories’ as you like to call it.] It’s easy to discount the ideas of others when you can’t come up with any of your own. Why do you ask questions if you’re not open to new ideas? A closed mind gathers no challenging thoughts.
The Soviets had an interesting experiment done with foxes. They bred the more amiable foxes and within three generations these foxes were very docile, their tails curled and they acted very much like pets towards their human caretakers. Concurrently, they bred foxes that were hostile to humans…with the result being that the offspring would try to bite or attack the caretakers (same ones that were caring for the domesticated foxes) when they fed them. So, following this scenario, if early humans only bred the more amiable wolves, those which proved to be useful on the hunt or protecting their families, within three or four generations they would have a thoroughly domesticated hunting/guarding canine. When I worked in the Great Canadian North with the Inuit, one of them told me that if any dog showed aggression towards a human (any human) they would kill it. Note that Inuit don’t keep dogs as pets but as working animals…so a hunter going out on the Land doesn’t have a set of dogs he works with exclusively. The dogs belong to the village. Using the Inuit scenario, coupled with the docile breeding program…we have the myriad of dog breeds we have today.
I find it quite curious that nearly everyone believes that domesticated dogs are descended from wolves. Why wolves? And which wolves? There are many types. Why not coyotes, foxes, or wild dogs? There are many wild canines. Why wolves.
Wild dogs are far more widespread than wolves. They occur on every continent including Australia. If the cradle of humanity is Africa, wild dogs live there but wolves do not.
Why wolves?
It’s easy to discount the ideas of others…
Of course it is, they’re just stories. Like old wives tales. I don’t have to make up another old wives tale to counter yours.
I’m with you on this Gary…and I will take it one step further…(with sympathy for certain commenters that are confused and angry)
We know from Scripture that Adam and Eve lived with ALL animals and did not eat meat. My humble theory is that at The Fall most animals were separated from us (into the wild ) but some stayed near, cats, dogs, and donkeys and horses to name a few….God’s blessings.
“What’s your theory?”
Who Me?
Oh, I think Al Gore created dogs…just before he built the internet. Not that he built either alone, though. ‘Cause Jughead said the gubmint is what really builds and creates stuff.
A closed mind gathers no intelligence
The aboriginals in the Yukon have been taking wolf cubs from the dens in the Spring for many generations. They do it for two reasons. One is that it’s the most effective way to control wolf populations if they start taking too many moose and caribou, and also it was for breeding with their dogs to offset the effects of inbreeding. Of course some closed minds can’t believe this because it’s only stories that elders tell and it doesn’t fit their dogma.
On the other hand, a completely open mind never knows if the knowledge they have is true. Old wives tales continually fall to newer, more popular, old wives tales.
Suppose it’s why scripture says following a blind man results in you both falling in the ditch…makes you just as blind as they are.
reducto ad absurdum arguments are fallacious, but they tell us a lot about trolls who contribute nothing useful to the discussion.
have a nice day.