Dog Domestication
How it happend and How we changed dogs
Where Did They Come From? & How Did We Change Them?
Wolves. Many theories suggest that the first dog came from a grey wolf. According to "Howstuffworks.com", Scientist believe that wolves became use to humans when looking for food at garbage dumps. Over time they became friendly and someone tamed a wolf pup. It happens like this because as wolves became more and more use to us, we did too. The friendlier ones were tolerated and the the aggressive wolves were most likely to be killed. So overtime it became easier and easier for someone to come along and tame a wolf pup. This shows how we did not really physically change dogs. It all happend because of domestication.
Video Below: Genetic Evidence of Dogs Originating From Extinct Wolf
When did it start?
Archaeological evidence shows that domestication of dogs have been around for 14,000 years. From the website "responsiabledog.net", there is fossil evidence of dogs from before the ice age. Also from "smithsonianmag.com", scientist say that dogs have existed before we knew them as dogs because they did not look the same. Evidence shows that dogs split from wolves around 27,000-40,000 years ago.
Genetic Evidence of Dogs Originating From Extinct Wolf
Did we every do anything TO change them?
According to "news.nationalgeographic.com", Weiwei Zhai states that dog domestication happend in two steps. First, wolf to dog. Second, dog to breed. But how did it go from a "dog" to 340 different breeds? Robert Wayne said that "Diversity in domestic dogs derives from a small genetic tool kit." We never technically changed anything in the dogs genes to make them different. It happend when genes were mutated through generations and breeding.
Have we ever experimented with a dogs genes?
Yes, actually. Researchers at the Institute of Biomedicine and Health in china used technology to edit a genes of a pair of beagles. They did this by removing copies of a gene called the Myostatin. The scientist created a dog with the genetic mutation that allows the beagle to build twice as much muscle. This is according to "techinsider.io". Did this work? Only one had a significant increase of muscle mass. This was only the beginning of experiments, though. "We plan to make dog models for human genetic disease," wrote Liangxue Lai.
What About Foxes?
A Russian geneticist, Dmitri Belyeav, tested this theory by domesticating foxes. Over time they did become tamer and took on some dog like characteristics. But this did not show the close results that domesticated wolves showed. This is according to "HowStuffWorks.com". This is important because it proves that dogs did not come from foxes over generations of domestication.
"Canine Art: Dire Wolf vs Gray Wolf vs Coyote vs Fox vs Dog - Weasyl."Canine Art: Dire Wolf vs Gray Wolf vs Coyote vs Fox vs Dog - Weasyl. N.p., n.d. Web. 15 Jan. 2016. (above)
"The Red Fox (Vulpes Vulpes)." Pgcps Mess Reform Sasscer without Delay. N.p., 15 Apr. 2014. Web. 17 Jan. 2016. (Left)