Yesterday while I was noodling around I stumbled across some very interesting articles on canine genetics. The first was a doctoral thesis, Consequences of the Domestication of Man’s Best Friend, the Dog. The thesis begins with a brief history of theories of the domestication of dogs and continues with an examination of the changes that occurred in dogs as a consequence of domestication. Changes included changes in the structure and activity of the frontal lobe, amygdala, and hypothalamus, changes in body size, skull size, and brain size, and changes in behavior. The thesis continues with an analysis of canine genetics including the genetics of different breeds of purebred dogs with a particular focus on poodles. I think that the case of poodles is interesting, too, but perhaps for reasons different from those of the author. The poodle is one of only a small number of “corded” dogs—dogs whose coat naturally form long, twisted cords. Other dogs that share this characteristic include the Hungarian Pulis and Komondors. Has this characteristic arisen once (and, consequently, are all corded dogs related) or many times?
I also looked at articles in the bibliography of the thesis. Multiple and Ancient Origins of the Domestic Dog and Dog Y chromosomal DNA sequence: identification, sequencing and SNP discovery. I’m wavering on whether to purchase Y chromosome haplotype analysis in purebred dogs. Can anyone tell me if the Samoyed is one of the purebred dog breeds analyzed? If so, I’ll buy it. Perhaps I may need to contact one of the authors.
The first of the articles has a very interesting examination of mtDNA haplotypes in purebred dogs—in many if not in most breeds there are multiples of these. The second is a similar, if sketchy, consideration of Y chromosome haplotypes in purebred dogs.
There’s a good selection of links on genetics here.
I also stumbled across an interesting blog post that mounted a decent challenge to the orthodox view that dogs are derived from grey wolves. If I find it again I’ll post tht link. The view that I’ve held for some time is that dogs are derived from a now-extinct small, Middle Eastern wolf that was, in turn, derived from the grey wolf. Morphologically this wolf would have been similar to the “pariah dogs”, the type you’d get if you let a random grouping of dogs interbreed freely for a while. As the Siberian fox experiments have suggested the result would probably have more white in the coat, be more inclined to curly tails, and be more inclined to drop ears than the ancestral wolf was.
There was a theory a while back that the ancient Egyptian dogs were descended from jackals, but there is no DNA evidence to support this.
It is interesting that after millenia of seperation dogs and wolves can still interbreed (and the result can be an excellent pet). Same with coyotes. My son, more familiar with such things, says coyotes are less selective than wolves as to sexual partners, and from what I’ve heard coydogs are undomesticable since they lack the pack instinct.
IIRC all the canids can interbreed.