From Wolves to Tame Pets

Angela

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This is a great blog post on the domestication of the dog:
http://blogs.biomedcentral.com/bmcs...al&utm_source=twitter.com&utm_campaign=buffer

"For 12,000 years they lay cradling one another. Their embrace shows that even at the dawn of civilization, we were not alone. Surely the puppy had a name – one that was called out, sometimes affectionately, sometimes sternly by the person whose ancient finger bones were found wrapped around it. Today such sounds are familiar. Back then they heralded the beginning of a partnership that would come to define both species.

Unearthed within a tomb
of the prehistoric settlement of Ain Mallaha, in Northern Israel, these remains belonged to the Natufian culture. Their settlements provide evidence of a people transitioning from hunter-gathering to a way of life centered around domesticated plants and animals.

It appears that dogs were the first species to enter into the fold. Genetic evidence indicates that dog domestication started sometime between 11,000-16,000 years ago. These bones provide physical evidence from the early stages of this special relationship between human and dog."

This is the picture to which he's referring:

israelpuppy.JPG




As to the man-guided selection involved:

"We found six biological pathways with a significant enrichment of genes with potentially functional differences between dogs and wolves. The strongest signal was in the adrenaline and noradrenaline biosynthesis pathway.

Adrenaline is a hormone with an important role in the fight-or-flight response. Therefore, we hypothesize that some of the genetic changes in this pathway may underlie the less fearful and aggressive behavior of dogs towards humans compared to wolves."



I haven't had a dog in a long time. I miss it. I do love my cats, but it's different.

The paper:

http://bmcevolbiol.biomedcentral.com/articles/10.1186/s12862-015-0579-7
 

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