New Genetics Study on Dogs' Evolution from Wolves

[KilledByDeath]

Thats actually a pretty cool story

and that wolf hybrid is BEAUTIFUL

Thank you, haha im so shameless, this was him when he was a pup.

He is like almost twice the size he was in the first pic at 13mo now,
very large, he easily dwarfs german sheperds and adult huskys.

I tell ya, it trips my neighbors out when i take him out and me and my kids and girlfriend will sit there and howl with him and his howl is so impressive it carries for a bit.
Check out the Wolf hybrids thread.

 

[Senzo Tanaka]

I think the more interesting discussion is what dogs should even be considered dogs now.

Due to selective breeding (not evolution), we have toy dogs like chihuahuas and by contrast, massive dogs like bullmastiffs. In the wild, there is no chance for a chihuahua to mate with a mastiff. Dog breeds would independently breed and speciation would occur. It's kind of interesting to think about.

 

[Slick_36]

I think the more interesting discussion is what dogs should even be considered dogs now.

Due to selective breeding (not evolution), we have toy dogs like chihuahuas and by contrast, massive dogs like bullmastiffs. In the wild, there is no chance for a chihuahua to mate with a mastiff. Dog breeds would independently breed and speciation would occur. It's kind of interesting to think about.

I would like to see the smallest dog bred with the second smallest dog and the biggest dog bred with the second biggest dog, and just take one step down every time until we have the exact middle. It would be part everything.

 

[GordoBarraBJJ]

When I was younger, still lived with my parents, I was going for a bike ride to down to my grandparents about 12km away. Anyhow, I was biking along and was coming to a large culvert a pack of dogs came out of both sides of the culvert and started to come after me from both sides. Barking, growling, etc.

That was crazy - I have never seen anything like that before. Like a pack of wolves or something.

 

[John Stockton]

I always laugh when I see pics of pitbull-chihuahua mixes. Some brave little ankle biter climbed up on big mama and gave her the business.

 

[Yardener]

Thats actually a pretty cool story

and that wolf hybrid is BEAUTIFUL

Agreed. That really is a great story. If you don't mind me asking, KBD, what nationality/culture is your grandma from?? Sounds kinda Native American.

Also, KBD, I've heard the same thing regarding Chineese dog breeds. Like the Shih-Tzu was to warm the Emperor's robes, and other small dogs were bred to be companion dogs. Actually, another genetic study indicated that domesticated dogs originated in China, b/c there's the most breed diversity there.

Another cool study was about the dingos on Fraser Island, Australia. The dingos' genetics were linked to domestic dogs from China/Southeast Asia from 5,000 years ago. Basically, the theory is some humans who settled in Polynesia brought these dogs with them. And the dingos evolved from something like a dozen or so of these original Asian domestic dogs and became wild in Australia. I'll see if I can find a link for that study...

EDIT: here's a BBC article about the dingos from 2004:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/3529010.stm

 

[Johnny_Mo]

It's unclear how/when exactly dogs evolved from wolves. One theory is that wolves became domesticated as our hunting companions around 40,000 years ago. Another theory, one bolstered by this recent genetics study, is that wolves became domesticated as a result of feeding on our garbage. This occured once we moved from a hunter/gatherer lifestyle to a more agricultural one around 11,000 years ago.

This study basically compared the wolf genome w/ the domesticated dog and found areas of difference. Then they looked at the genes in those areas and what their funcitons are. Two things: brain and digestion.

The digestion piece is the key evidence here. Dogs have on average 7x the enzyme capacity to digest starches compared to wolves. So, by natural selection, those wolves that could more readily digest our agricultural waste grains had an advantage and passed that trait on.

The brain difference is not as well understood, but probably has to do with the more passive, puppy-like traits that dogs exhibit, which early humans then selected for. (An interesting correlary is a Russian study showing domestication of foxes w/in a few generations by selecting for passivity traits - in the process they develop droopy ears.)

In all likelihood, the domestication of dogs from wolves happened many times w/ many different populations over many thousands of years for different reasons. And those semi-wolf populations then interbred back and forth.

good study summary:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-21142870

original article:
http://www.nature.com/nature/journal/vaop/ncurrent/full/nature11837.html

During the Cold War years an experiment was conducted by the Russian government on fox populations in which some of the theories stated in the OP were (unintentionally?) tested. What the scientists found was that the average fox was fairly aggressive towards human contact (hissing, snarling, and biting) and they correlated this to the amount of adrenaline their bodies naturally produced. Now due to genetic diversity and variance they found that out of roughly 100 or so foxes a scant few, maybe one or two (outliers on the graph, so to speak) would be far less aggressive towards humans (and, indeed, were found to have far lower levels of adrenaline produced in their bodies). Conversely, a few foxes within the batch would display hyper-aggressive behavior (very high levels of adrenaline).

So the scientists began selecting along two strains (docile and super-aggressive), they would take the two most docile and friendly and start a whole new generation and then select the two least aggressive from that batch and so on. They would do likewise for the other strain; this time selecting the two most aggressive. I can't recall exactly, but I think the study went on for over 40 years and so after like 20 or so generations they had two particular breeds of fox entirely different than what they started out with. One was an easily domesticated, friendly fox, easily made a pet. The other was a fire-breathing, raging beast of a fox, truly terrifying for such a small canine as is a fox (and who snarled, barked, and snapped violently at the mere presence of a human).

Not surprisingly, the two breeds also showed marked physiological differences, not unlike those between dogs and wolves (although on a much smaller scale of deviation). I guess the lesson is that it really doesn't take that long once a certain trait begins to be selected for (slightly longer, of course, if it's being done unintentionally as was the case with the early humans). Now why the USSR conducting these experiments I can't quite recall, but I'm guessing their motivations, at least initially, were somewhat sinister in nature, rather than purely just being a work of science.

 

[KilledByDeath]

Agreed. That really is a great story. If you don't mind me asking, KBD, what nationality/culture is your grandma from?? Sounds kinda Native American.

Also, KBD, I've heard the same thing regarding Chineese dog breeds. Like the Shih-Tzu was to warm the Emperor's robes, and other small dogs were bred to be companion dogs. Actually, another genetic study indicated that domesticated dogs originated in China, b/c there's the most breed diversity there.

Another cool study was about the dingos on Fraser Island, Australia. The dingos' genetics were linked to domestic dogs from China/Southeast Asia from 5,000 years ago. Basically, the theory is some humans who settled in Polynesia brought these dogs with them. And the dingos evolved from something like a dozen or so of these original Asian domestic dogs and became wild in Australia. I'll see if I can find a link for that study...

EDIT: here's a BBC article about the dingos from 2004:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/3529010.stm

Neat i will look into it ASAP. BTW i am native american, we are of Chumash/Zacateco bloodlines, so my maternal side is northern native and my paternal side is of southern native blood. But our two tribes have been intermarrying for many centuries.

 

[Yardener]

Here's a video about the Russian fox domestication study. It really is amazing how human selective breeding can have such a profound effect in a relatively short time. They started to diverge after 3 generations, and they were totally distinct by 8 generations. 50 generations later - they're totally tame and cuddly.

the aggressive ones...whoa

 

[Johnny_Mo]

Awesome Yardener. Thanks.

 

[BJJ NINJA]

I've always wondered if smaller dogs were bred from maybe foxes or something.

 

[Yardener]

I think the more interesting discussion is what dogs should even be considered dogs now.

Due to selective breeding (not evolution), we have toy dogs like chihuahuas and by contrast, massive dogs like bullmastiffs. In the wild, there is no chance for a chihuahua to mate with a mastiff. Dog breeds would independently breed and speciation would occur. It's kind of interesting to think about.

That is interesting. I think some dogs breeds can only reproduce via C-section now b/c their heads have become too big relative to hip size. There seems to be a lot of dog-knowledgable people in the Mayberry, so maybe someone can comment. Maybe French Bulldogs are like this?

 

[rsierra2]

My dog, a rat terrier, looks like it originated from a fox much more than a wolf lol.