Posted on 02/13/2004 8:11:55 PM PST by blam
10 tails that wag the modern dog
Tim Radford in Seattle learns how and Fido sprang from a wolf
Saturday February 14, 2004
The Guardian (UK)
Within five years researchers will have completed the evolutionary tree of man's best friend, from a wolf in eastern Asia about 15,000 years ago to more than 300 breeds today. The genetic sequence of a dog - a poodle - was completed in 2003. Now a combination of pedigree data, veterinary expertise, genetics and historical records could demonstrate the link the chihuahua and border collie, great dane and German shepherd.
Deborah Lynch of the Canine Studies Institute in Aurora, Ohio, unveiled a genetic map showing 10 classes of dog which, in the past 2,000 to 3,000 years, have led to 300 different kinds of modern purebred.
Dogs are an evolutionary puzzle: all domestic dogs belong to one species but they have evolved a greater variety of shape, size, behaviour and specialisation than any other animal.
Ms Lynch argued that the use of dogs for specialised purposes began thousands of years ago. A Mesopotamian image from 3000BC showed a trader walking with a mastiff and a greyhound, while his wife followed with a Maltese lapdog in a basket.
A now vanished Scots highland terrier was probably the progenitor of all the terrier varieties. The origins of dogs such as the bull mastiff and Rhodesian ridgeback were well documented, she said.
Some breeds had been lost, some recreated. Other varieties had uncertain beginnings: something like a dachshund or bassett hound appeared on ancient Egyptian artefacts.
But she argued that at least 10 prototype ancestors could be identified: dogs for hunting in the desert, dogs adapted for cold, or hunting in brush, or for standing guard, and so on.
"It's a new way of thinking about purebred dogs. For the first time we have identified progenitor breeds for each type of dog."
Sight hounds, for instance, had a deep chest, long limbs, a sleek head and long jaw, and would have been used for hunting in the Middle East. From these evolved the greyhound in 2900BC and the whippet in England only two centuries ago.
Scent hounds, with a sense of smell 100,000 times more discerning than a human's, dated from around AD300, and survive as bloodhounds, foxhounds, dachshunds and so on. "You want an animal that is useful in a temperate climate where there are trees and grass and you can't see that far. So you have to hunt by scent."
Working and guard dogs such as the mastiff were thought to have originated in Tibet in the stone age: the rottweiler emerging in German in AD74, the St Bernard in Switzerland in 1050 and the bulldog in England in 1600.
Toy and companion dogs probably began with the Maltese in 3000BC - statues of Maltese dogs were found in the tomb of Rameses II - and led to the pug in 400BC and the toy poodle in 1700.
Northern breeds - her fifth group - were adapted to the cold. Skeletal remains of northern elkhounds have been dated at 5000BC. Their descendants tended to have small ears and thick double coats and eyes that can squint in bright snow: the chow chow was recorded in 150BC in China and the pomeranian appeared in England in 1800.
Flushing spaniels - with long ears and long muzzles for carrying game - emerged in Spain in 250BC; water spaniels and retrievers in about AD700. Terriers - ideal for hunting vermin - emerged early and proliferated in Britain and Europe.
The last group, the herding dogs, may have begun in the Middle East: Canaan dogs accompanied the Israelites 2,200 years ago and could be the ancestor of the Welsh corgi, the border collie, the old English sheepdog and the German shepherd.
Absolutely no practical purpose other than entertainment, at which they excel.
They do look like they would be fast runners. My dogs can be seen on my profile page.
Did I hear it say that they ( man and dogs) may even have hunted together as a pack...or, at least cooperated, somehow.
I know I'm the alpha dog in my pack, really.
LOL. I have an Australian Shephard that seldom stops and a Yellow Lab that sleeps all the time. I took him to the vet when he was younger..the vet said he was just a lazy dog. LOL
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Buddy the Boxer puppy mournfuly watching my daughter go across the street. |
Or this: 
Well, that was simple enough...you think I should email these guys and tell them they can cease their study. <>
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