For those interested, the Times article links to the paper: Ancient Wolf Genome Reveals an Early Divergence of Domestic Dog Ancestors and Admixture into High-Latitude Breeds
Posted on 05/21/2015 10:15:08 AM PDT by C19fan
Dogs have been man's best friend for up to 40,000 years, suggests new research. The study shows dogs' special relationship with humans might date back 27,000 to 40,000 years. The findings, published in the journal Current Biology, come from genomic analysis of an ancient Taimyr wolf bone.
(Excerpt) Read more at telegraph.co.uk ...
For whatever reason, I found the Telegraph story hard to follow. This one is much clearer: http://www.nytimes.com/2015/05/22/science/family-tree-of-dogs-and-wolves-is-found-to-split-earlier-than-thought.html?_r=0
For the most part, I think we’ve made dogs considerably smarter.
Cats are “domesticated”? Mine would say people are semi domesticated. My dog is humanized (if there is such a word).
There’s a creation myth from somewhere that when the world was created, a chasm opened in the earth separating man from the animals. But at the last moment, the dog jumped across to be at man’s side.
Or maybe the other way around!
Dogs sitting around trying to figure out how to outsmart the master.They probably did get smarter.
For those interested, the Times article links to the paper: Ancient Wolf Genome Reveals an Early Divergence of Domestic Dog Ancestors and Admixture into High-Latitude Breeds
One could argue that some ethnic groups still are not domesticated.
ping
But—Has Bigfoot domesticated the Hell Hound?
Dogs understand some fairly complex abstract concepts.
For instance when I point at something, the dog looks for what I’m pointing at rather than at my hand.
“The earliest date I have seen before for domestication was 30,000 years ago. This study might push that back another 10,0000 years. In comparison from what I understand cats were domesticated 10,000 years ago. “
Alas, the process for domestication of women has barely begun. They will scratch your eyes out at the slightest offense. Like implying they are still feral, just for instance.
We make them smarter because we talk to them all the time. It is amazing how much language they understand.
I have loved dogs since my earliest days. I think I like dogs more than most people.
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