Scientists Close To Solving the Mystery of Where Dogs Came From 167
sciencehabit writes: For years researchers have argued over where and when dogs arose. Some say Europe, some say Asia. Some say 15,000 years ago, some say more than 30,000 years ago. Now an unprecedented collaboration of archaeologists and geneticists from around the world is attempting to solve the mystery once and for all. They're analyzing thousands of bones, employing new technologies, and trying to put aside years of bad blood and bruised egos. If the effort succeeds, the former competitors will uncover the history of man's oldest friend — and solve one of the greatest mysteries of domestication.
state of the science (Score:5, Funny)
One thing we've known for a long time is that a good half of them are sons of bitches.
Re:state of the science (Score:4, Informative)
One thing we've known for a long time is that a good half of them are sons of bitches.
Yeah, but they're still better than most people. ;-)
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The bitches will get all up in your grill if you call them that.
Re:state of the science (Score:5, Funny)
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My neighbours named their dog Karma. What an awesome name for a female dog.
Duh. They should have called her Dogma.
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My neighbours named their dog Karma. What an awesome name for a female dog.
Duh. They should have called her Dogma.
+5 Underrated
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My karma just ran over your dogma.
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My wife named the dog Kat.
Now when the dog gets into something and you holler at her the two cats pop there heads up and have a "What? I wasn't doing anything" look on there faces.
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Animals have a really hard time understanding and remembering words to begin with, this is just messing with them. That you had cats smart enough to recognize a group word AND were willing to come when called is already a triumph, messing with them is just mean.
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I bought a dog the other day...I named him Stay. It's fun to call him..."Come here, Stay! Come here, Stay!" He went insane. Now he just ignores me and keeps typing. -- Steve Wright
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My wife named the dog Kat.
Now when the dog gets into something and you holler at her the two cats pop there heads up and have a "What? I wasn't doing anything" look on there faces.
Yes, but cats would do that anyway. Even if they were up to their pointy ears in the mischief.
I'll take my millions of dollars in research funds (Score:3)
right now. I have the answer.
dogs come from puppies
Finally Happy! (Score:2)
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That, and apparently according to the PMs around the office, lots of checklists.
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You mean besides chasing cars?
Oh, I thought you were talking about dog archaeologists, not human archaeologists who study dogs.
At least dog archaeologists would know where all the bones were buried...
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We named the dog Indiana.
Comment removed (Score:5, Funny)
I'm assuming... (Score:5, Funny)
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The answer is always bitches.
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Mars bitches.
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puppies
competitive (Score:2)
...and trying to put aside years of bad blood and bruised egos.
Wow, who would have thought there was so much glory in being the 'origins of dog' guy.
Re:competitive (Score:5, Insightful)
"Academic politics is the most vicious and bitter form of politics, because the stakes are so low." – Wallace Stanley Sayre
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Your missing that it was a joke is almost as funny as the joke itself.
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The dead stop being bitter.
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Maybe they're dyslexic.
Re:competitive (Score:5, Funny)
...and trying to put aside years of bad blood and bruised egos.
Wow, who would have thought there was so much glory in being the 'origins of dog' guy.
Must be a bunch of glory hounds
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bitches (Score:1)
Then there is the next big question (Score:5, Funny)
How exactly did humans get domesticated by cats.
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Dog think they're family. Cats think they're God. -- Origin unknown
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Perhaps it was the typo that is causing you to not be able to find the original quote. ;)
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Perhaps it was the typo that is causing you to not be able to find the original quote. ;)
Yup. Corrected quote (still without a source):
Dogs think they're humans. Cats think they're God.
Oh dear... (Score:5, Funny)
Really? Do we have to have this conversation? Okay...
When a mummy dog and a daddy dog love each other very much, mummy dog gives daddy dog a special piggy back ride...
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You forgot the part where mummy dog rises from the temple at the request of King Tut.
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You're gonna raise some really screwed up kids ... but screwed up in an interesting way.
TGIF (Score:2)
So, after they have solved this conundrum can they then focus their attention on breeding out the need for dogs to lick their balls?
But given the state of the competitive behavior in academic circles we will instead end up knowing WHY dogs lick their balls...
Over and out!
Re:TGIF (Score:5, Funny)
...we will instead end up knowing WHY dogs lick their balls...
Because they can.
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I see some have answered "Because they can" and it seems I was too obtuse...
When has common knowledge stopped academic research into things.. :)
Time for another beer!
Re:TGIF (Score:5, Insightful)
If you could reach you would too and you wouldn't get anything else done. This flexibility is why dogs never achieved the great advances of mankind like space flight and nuclear bombs. Imagine if men were that flexible...
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I imagine men would still fight over getting others to lick their balls for them.
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Where's the +1 Chilling mod when you need it?
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They don't need to figure out how to get into space, because they know we will take them along.
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Yes, and that is the point. They got apes to build the rockets for them.
Re:TGIF (Score:5, Funny)
But given the state of the competitive behavior in academic circles we will instead end up knowing WHY dogs lick their balls...
Over and out!
Because they can!
Two guys were walking down the street, and notice a dog sitting there licking it's balls, giving them a real workover.
One says to the other "Gee, I really wish I could do that." Other one replies, "Don't you think you should check with the dog first?"
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It is either: OVER or OUT. Not both. Only in bad movies they say both.
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You're joking, but it really would be nice if dog breeds were bred for stuff like "lives a long healthy life" instead of "skin folds on face".
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Dogs come from dogs. (Score:2)
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Booyah!
http://i2.kym-cdn.com/entries/... [kym-cdn.com]
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Why a single place? (Score:2)
I think there is enough evidence to suggest that domestication happened independently in at least three different places: Eurasia, Australia and America. Why are they trying to narrow it to a single place?
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Why are they trying to narrow it to a single place?
Surely one place is best. And each scientist who studies dogs wants the pick of the litter.
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Given modern experimental evidence that wild foxes can be domesticated in a few generations (that includes physical changes, most notably non-erect ears), multiple site domestication is quite plausible.
There are also several modern examples of wild fox newborns raised as pets without significant problems.
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There are also several modern examples of wild fox newborns raised as pets without significant problems.
Evidently they've never been put in charge of the hen house. Or elected to Congress.
(since you missed my last joke [which, admittedly, wasn't that good], I thought I'd try another one :-)
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But Foxes are neither Dogs nor Wolves, they are related to Cats.
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Whilst technically true, your statement is also misleading (if you meant to imply foxes are more closely related to cats than they are to dogs). Wolves, jackals, dogs and foxes are all Canids [wikipedia.org]. Foxes are also more closely related to seals, otters, skunks, weasels, red pandas, bears and walruses than they are to cats (the Caniformia [wikipedia.org] suborder contains all these, felines are in a different suborder).
You may be thinking of Hyenas, which are more closely related to cats than dogs.
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The modern taxinomy might call them canids, but they are not related in any way to them, besides being mamals.
By coevolution they look like dogs, but they aren't. Ofc they are not felidae either.
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What?
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/C... [wikipedia.org]
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/F... [wikipedia.org]
Foxes are very close to dogs and wolves.
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Foxes are in the hierarchy of animals considerd cats ... no idea about your links, did nit read them.
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That was a pretty interesting study, and does show that the underlying behaviors of canids and humans have some degree of compatibility and overlap, and it does not require a large amount of breeding to produce domesticated canids. The fox experiments (I think they were done in Russia) demonstrate that the domestication of wolf progenitor populations into dogs was probably fairly rapid, which also raises the likelihood (strongly hinted it in the molecular data) that there were multiple wolf domestication ev
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The evidence for multiple domestications is overwhelmingly strong. Denial of it is like climate change denial. There may always be someone with their pet unified domestication theory but it's simply wrong.
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It was just a joke, I say a joke son.
(As senior rooster ’round here, it’s my duty, and my pleasure, to instruct junior roosters in the ancient art of roostery.)
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I think there is enough evidence to suggest that domestication happened independently in at least three different places: Eurasia, Australia and America. Why are they trying to narrow it to a single place?
Since the dog is supposed to be the first animal domesticated, maybe we're overlooking something unique. Maybe it's not just the dogs that could get along well with humans had a greater chance of surviving, but also that humans who could get along well with dogs also had a greater chance of surviving. There's no reason why natural selection wouldn't prefer such an evolutionary preference in both humans and dogs. It's not like humans are immune to the effects of natural selection.
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Dogs are instinctively protective of babies and children. Every family with kids should have a big mutt to prevent child abuse.
Dogs and humans are also the only animals known that prefer the other species company to their own species.
Multiple domestications (Score:5, Interesting)
There is a huge amount of evidence that domestication did not happen once or in one place but many times in many places around the world. This evidence points back as far as about 135,000 years and as close as about 15,000 years for each of these events in time where wolves domesticated humans. It is speculated that wolves did this for two reasons: fire and thumbs for scratching.
It is not surprising that there would be multiple domestications. A human plus a wolf are far more powerful at defense and offense, at hunting and guarding than either species alone. Our social structures are very parallel and our physical abilities complement each other.
Re:Multiple domestications (Score:5, Informative)
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Yes, I did read the article and still see strong evidence and logic for the multiple domestication. For example, some strong domestication results are within the 15K BP timeframe but people also took domestic dogs with them to Australia which is much greater than that frame. It's complex. I doubt this will solve it.
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Yes, that's the point but your date is off. The immigration to Australia included dingos but was further back.
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Now, this is a theory, a thesis. It seems plausible, but you haven't advanced any data to see if it is indeed true.
This is precisely what these folks are trying to do.
Humans probably kept the less dominant ... (Score:3)
The shy wolf we can discount to a degree, as they didn't come near human settlements all that much. Any inquisitive & aggressive wolf that came close would find itself that night's wolfburger. That leaves inquisitive & friendly as the wolf roaming around human settlements.
Its not that simple. There is the possibility of acquiring wolves as a pup, so any personality type could grow up around a group of humans and look at these humans as their pack. It actually seems more likely pups were domesticated, they would be more likely to view the humans as their pack than a wild adult wolf.
Substituting "less dominant" for "shy" and "more dominant" for "aggressive" may be more accurate with respect to personality types. These less dominant wolves were probably the ones who were the
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Thank you for demonstrating your ignorance. Please actually read the originally cited article and come to understand evolution.
Yes but.... (Score:1)
Animated Response (Score:1)
I guess this question logically follows after knowing that all dogs go to heaven. At least in the movies...
which one? (Score:4, Interesting)
Thus it would be a surprise if dog domestication happened only once.
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Everybody should know that dogs are domesticated WOLVES not FOXs.
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He does, and so do the Russians that domesticated foxes. His point is that if foxes domesticate so rapidly, wolves likely do as well.
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Ofc they do, you need perhaps ten to twelve generations.
However foxes become more dog like and lose their 'foxyness', at least that happened in Russia (I assume you refer to those 'blue foxes').
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Exactly, and wolves lost their 'wolveness' and become what we call today dogs.
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Erm, I don't see much difference between a wolf and a dog. ... a dog and a wolf are extremely similar, a domesticated fox and a ferral fox are not, domesticated foxes even bark like dogs.
The foxes in russia, became like dogs, too. That us what I mean they lost their foxyness
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Well, the standing hypothesis for domestication is that it wasn't really conscious, it just happened to be beneficial for both species - but for wolves first. Presumably they started by scavenging on edible remains left in the vicinity of human camps. The wolves that were less shy (so they approached the camps more) and exhibited less aggressiveness (so they would be chased away less) had an evolutionary advantage in that population, and so they bred for those traits. At some point that could have produced
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For a rather leisurely definition of BAM. It took around ten generations for the silver foxes, so I expect that it took a lot more generations for any wolf devoing to produce an acceptable "hound" that could be brought into the camp (after all, the hunters didn't KNOW how to do it before they tried).
I never thought they took Baha Men seriously. (Score:2)
Oblig. Joke (Score:3, Funny)
Did you hear about the dyslexic agnostic insomniac?
He stayed up all night wondering if there is a Dog.
Jepoardy (Score:1)
Alex, The question is "Who let the dogs out?"
They're aliens (Score:2)
The Far Side answered this years ago:
https://overthehedgeblog.files... [wordpress.com]
Dogs Flew Spaceships! (Score:2)
The Aztecs Invented the Vacation!
Men and Women are the Same Sex!
Our Forefathers Took Drugs!
Your Brain Is Not the Boss!
Yes, that's Right: Everything You Know Is Wrong!!! [youtube.com]
Hello seekers! Here we go again! And hello to the skeptic inside you who might still believe that pigs live in trees, and that faithful Rovers is nothing more than a pet sleeping by the doggie door. Well, doggone it, he's smarter than you'll ever be! Yes, I've got proof here that his ancestors came from the D
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"For years researchers have argued over where and when dogs arose."
Ah yes, the great dog uprising of 02, back in the old country. Let me tell ya, sonny, that was a scary day for anybody with a pocket full of ground beef. The cats didn't come down from the trees for weeks afterwards. Chihuahuas made up a cavalry charge, riding on the backs of Great Danes. All was nearly lost, until the air corps saved us with a mass airdrop of tennis balls.
Truly LOL! Nice synthesis of the TFT Style.
Proving what Phil Austin said in The Firesign Theatre's Big Book of Plays: "The Firesign Theatre is a technique." [villagevoice.com]
But like the voice of Christopher Walken, almost anyone can pull off something that sounds a little like Walken; but no one quite gets it right; sometimes not even The 3 (or 4) or 4 (or 5) Crazy Guys...
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Sophia: Picture this... 1969... Baikonur Cosmodrome. I was snuck into the country by the CIA to infiltrate the Soviet space program. I got close enough to get in the running for First Woman in Space. Valentina Tereshkova beat me out, but I think it was because I'd caught Khrushchev's eye and space and he didn't want me to get killed. Nikita... what a guy.