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ARIES83 -> RE: How wolves and humans became pals (1/24/2013 1:25:55 PM)
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Yes it was an intresting read... but the idea that
dogs evolved on the waste dump on the outskirts
of human habitation, doesn't need to be related to
agriculture...
quote:
"Fossil evidence suggests some populations could have been around tens of thousands of years ago, long before the emergence of agriculture."
"It could be that dog domestication started once with some animals staying with humans which were then regularly back-crossed with wolves and that could have the same effect. But there could have been completely independent domestications. What is clear is that the number of bone remains is very rare more than 14,000 years ago."
"When we look at the wolf genome, we only see one copy of the gene [for the amylase enzyme] on each chromosome. When we look at the dog genome, we see a range from two to 15 copies; and on average a dog carries seven copies more than the wolf.
That even suggests there are some modern dog
breeds with similar dietary capabilities to the wolf,
can you see how it doesn't necessarily have to
follow that the beginnings of how dogs originated
need be related to agriculture?
A better explanation IMO would be that modern
dogs descended from earlier dogs and one trait
that has resulted is that modern dogs are better
able to utilise the same food we do, a function of
the niche they occupy. As opposed to earlier dogs
who were no doubt closer to wolves in their
dietary requirements.
And anyway,
I don't really think there need be some evolutionary
change, wolves>dogs in order to believe they could
coexist with early humans, people have wolves as
pets today, people keep other wild animals as pets
as well, I could see people keeping pets way back
then... my dogs a bastard haha, the result of some
horny dog running around the neighbourhood, it's
not to much of a stretch to imagine what happens
when your pet is tied up outside of a night and
some wild male makes a booty call, you go from
having one pet to a whole lot of adorable puppies
which then grow up looking at you as family.
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