Posted on 07/18/2006 9:06:26 AM PDT by PatrickHenry
Details, details.
Since Chihuahua's come from Mexico, I'd say it is probably the chupacabra.
Humans have successfully manipulated dogs' genetics until the dogs have us just where they want us.
Chihuahua's don't forget, they are just on a shorter schedule than bigger dogs. Also those tiny tiny bladders might have something to do with it.
Socialism has an even bigger impact on human diversity. It broadens the gene-pool, mostly in undesirable directions, while jail serves to fine tune it. War's role in human evolution is as a big reset button, bringing the gene pool back into a very narrow range. It's why humans are remarkably the same the world over, and why the Neanderthals no longer exist.
And then, sometimes, there doesn't appear to be any variation at all ~ to wit, all kinds of insects on trees in the Amazon.
oxymoron alert.
What I said.
A petri dish can resolve that problem! Betcha' ya' get a big ol' yeller dawg out of it too.
There's another process where something gets "de-methylated" and genes thought to be dormant get expressed.
The genes don't change at all.
"And then, sometimes, there doesn't appear to be any variation at all ~ to wit, all kinds of insects on trees in the Amazon."
No variation??
I believe that in someways, man and dog co-evolved, together.
You can play with those foxes all day long and all you're gonna' get is a sexed out dog ~ with no pups.
That doesn't mean those dogs aren't trying to breed with you though.
No it isn't, the poster said "cutsy" not "crusty" ;0)
"I'm hoping -- perhaps in vain -- that everyone won't pile in to post cutsy pics of your dogs."
That, at least, would be better than what we usually get on any thread that mentions evolution.
(NOTE: that was an explanation for why there seemed to be entirely different, but otherwise identical in appearance critters on each and every large tree in the amazon ~ I suppose the researcher didn't get any more funding because he was unable to tie this into how serious human rendered habitat loss was going to be to diversity in the biosphere.)
"I have known dogs and cats to possess individual, unique personality traits and intelligence that are far beyond what the Bible calls voided minds of brute beasts."
That is somthing that has always bothered me since I was a kid. I personaly think every dog I've ever had, had a soul.
Each one had his own unique personality, and it always amazed me how they could communicate to get what they need, want, or to get you to play with them. Each one also had the knack to know when my wife or myself were upset, and they knew their affection would help make things just a little better. I think God put man and dogs together because he knew it would be a mutualy benificial relationship.
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