How did dogs evolve? What evolved dogs

Many different theories have been developed about the evolution of dogs, and wolves, foxes, and jackals were all thought to be the direct ancestors of dogs. In the 19th century, the diversification of dog breeds led to the idea that even Darwin and others shared that there was more than one wild ancestor of dogs. In fact, if jackals and wolves, or even coyotes and maned dogs, are raised separately and then crossbred with their offspring, it will inevitably lead to the genetic mixing of these different breeds.

From this, it can be seen that the theory that there is not enough one ancestor of dogs is correct. Because the countless dog breeds in the world today are the result of careful selection of dogs by early humans plus genetic variation.

The ancestor of the dog is the ancestor of the wolf, although after more than 10,000 years of breeding and domestication, but in its genes, there are still many primitive wolf habits, and live in groups. Sociality is one of them. Wolves are social animals, and they are usually seven.

Eight wolves hunt for food in a group of hunters, and each wolf has a different class status in the group; Zoologists are accustomed to calling the leader of the wolf pack the alfa wolf, and the responsibility of the group, including the distribution of food, the settlement of disputes, and even the reproduction of offspring, depends on it; The rest of the wolves are also content with their position in the group and obey the leadership of the alpha wolf, which is the wolf society. And what about dogs? Although the dogs have evolved over a long period of time, they have retained the nature of these wolves, but the object of living in groups has expanded from their own kind to those who keep them.

At home, the dog treats each family member as part of the group, lives with us, plays with us, hunts (goes out for a walk).During the time we have lived with humans, the sensitive dog has unconsciously made it home for us.

There is a consensus that dogs originated from wolves, but there are different opinions surrounding the exact origin and time. The earliest evidence of a dog fossil is a 14,000-year-old mandible fossil in Germany, and these archaeological evidence supports the fact that dogs originated in Southwest Asia or Europe, while on the other hand, the skeletal identification features of dogs suggest that dogs may have originated from wolves, thus proposing the East Asian origin theory of dogs.

Researchers say it is possible that dogs have self-domesticated by finding humans and eating human leftovers. Israeli fossil and genetic research has identified the domestication of dogs as about 10,000 years ago, coinciding with the Agricultural Revolution, when humans transitioned from nomadic hunters to farming and living in settlements. Some scientists believe that wolves were attracted to the dumps of these early settlements, where they fed on leftovers from vegetable and cereal cultivation.

Specifically, dogs carried extra copies of the amylase gene compared to their wolf counterparts. In addition, dogs produce 12-fold more maltase-glucoamylase, which is a tie-in because of several mutations in the enzyme gene. Mutations in the third gene, SGLT1, improve the absorption of proteins by intestinal sugar.

Dogs were domesticated from wolves. There is some evidence that domestic dogs evolved from multiple species of ancient wolves, and that dogs exhibited the characteristics of one or more ancient wolves through intentional or unintentional crossbreeding. Although all wolves belong to the species Canis lupus, many subspecies of the species, present or past, differ to a greater or lesser extent in appearance, social structure or other characteristics.

For example, the Japanese wolf, which became extinct in the early twentieth century, was smaller than other species of wolves, with gray fur and a red underbelly. Japanese wolves may be more sole-hunting; The North American wolf, which still lives in some areas, is much larger than the other subspecies of the species, with fur ranging in color from nearly white to pure black, and at the same time, they also have a complex social structure and hierarchical behavior patterns.