Dogs are man’s best friend. It’s a phrase we are all familiar with. Some have said that dogs are the only animal that has truly been domesticated. Interestingly, this seems to have been the case for a very long time. There is even an 8000-year-old dog buried with its owner and wearing some sort of necklace. Such instances of ancient humans burying dogs exist in many cultures as well, everywhere from Siberia to Turkey. How did this come to pass though? Dogs are not so different from the modern coyote or wolf, both wild animals with no particular affinity for humans. What is it that changed to make dogs evolve in such a different way than their four-legged cousins?
One of the most common theories for how the transition from wild beast to “fetch the paper, boy” is what could be called the ‘slow trust’ theory. The idea is basically that a curious wolf got closer and closer to people at the fire and instead of killing it, some early humans decided to feed it. Over time the wolf became dependent on the human and the human began to teach the wolf. Another is that wolves simply began following humans as they migrated with the seasons, feeding off whatever carcasses the humans left behind from time to time. There is even the orphan theory, the idea that a wolf pup was kicked out of the pack for some reason and was taken in by a hunter. Others eventually copied him and now we have ‘toy dogs’.
Now, researchers are trying to find the genetic source of the modern dog by mapping various canine genomes. Already having done several extensive studies on dog genetics, a team of over fifty researchers led by Dr. Robert Losey at the University of Alberta is directing their microscopes to wolves, specifically those living around 11,000 years ago, the end of the last ice age.
How does this genetic mapping work? It involves looking at the spacing between different genes in the wolves DNA. Should these genes be common among wolves in a given area (not just a unique mutation) and then is found to be shared by dogs in say, Turkey, there is clear evidence of a genetic link. What Dr. Losey and his team are doing that is new is also mapping the genes of the humans buried near them. So if there are genetic traits shared by people in Siberia who are buried with or near wolves or wolf-like dogs and farmers down in Turkey who are buried near their dogs it would indicate it wasn’t just wolves who adapted to humans and became dogs along the way. It would suggest that humans also developed, alongside their canine companions, or at least that it was a certain type of human that was more likely to form a bond with wolves and dogs.
Part of the drive for this new avenue of research is that no one seems to be able to come up with a convincing answer to how wolves became domesticated dogs. Every now and then a theory gains traction but only for a year or two before new data comes out and sends them back to the drawing board. What he is trying to do is get back to the source, the origin of that transition. This is the obvious thing to do, to try to get data from the source whenever possible. That way, you get the best, most honest data on any subject, whether it’s mapping canine genetics or crime scene investigation. Even your grandmother probably told you to get your information “straight from the horse’s mouth”.
We know instinctively that we should always learn from the source, to start from the beginning. That’s exactly what TARTLE is doing with data, getting companies to go to you, the source of the data rather than a bunch of opportunistic third parties. That way, they can learn, adjust, and refine their own models based not on guess work, assumptions, and agendas but on data gained from real people eager to make a difference.
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