I was reading the newspaper over breakfast, a couple of days ago, when I casually noticed a short article about some research done in UCLA having proved that dogs are descended from wolves. How you look at dogs depends, I guess, on childhood experiences. Some people feel anxious and even panicky when they see a dog getting near. I grew up with a dog in the house, so I have warm feelings to my four legged friends.
Curiosity got the better of me, so I opened the Alta Vista search page and dug up the original article in Science. The original research paper may be a touch indigestible unless you're into reading about DNA sequences, monophyletic clades and haplotypes. However, the Research News commentary, in the same issue, is not so daunting. The main claim is that modern dogs diverged from wolvine ancestors as much as 135,000 years back. Mind you, you should take the date with a generous pinch of salt. Dates based on the so called mitochondrial clock are none too accurate. Still, that's a pretty long friendship; much longer than the 14,000 years that archaeological records suggest.
For a reputed journal though, the commentary makes bold and unsubstantiated claims. It quotes Robert K. Wayne, the chief author of the research paper as saying, "once humans succeeded in changing the wicked wolf into loyal Lassie..." Now that's something that would make any dog's blood boil. Where is the support for that outrageous claim? Perhaps that is the arrogant sort of statement that you would expect from the species that is so immodest to call itself Homo Sapiens (Wise Man).
Well, how did man and his dog get together in the first place? I guess that when our ancestors got the hang of hunting large game, they must have attracted the attention of many others who like the taste of meat. A large carcass would provide a feast for the hunters and their family. More than they could eat by themselves. There would be plenty of left overs for others to scrounge. Stanley J. Olson a vertebrate paleontologist from the University of Arizona, claims "there is evidence that primitive humans and wolves lived near each other and probably benefited from the relationship". "Wolf packs", he says, "probably got some of their food from carcasses left behind by hunting humans". "It's possible", he noted, "that wolf packs incorporated human bands into a territory protected from other packs". Bones of wolves have been found in association with those of our ancestors from as early as 400,000 years ago.
Protodog probably found that this was a cushy life - far easier than having to do all the hunting himself. Our ancestors kept these scavengers at bay as best they could, but protodog was a cunning creature, especially where the pay off was food. The ploy was simple and elegant. Protodog sauntered casually around, keeping just far enough away to avoid conflict, but near enough to dart in and snatch the tidbits when they fell or were tossed aside. With the worry of finding the next meal gone, protodog relaxed and started enjoying the good life. Now followed a period of change. Darwinian evolution chose the fittest. In this case, fittest meant those who could get closest without being chased away. Protodog evolved into modern dog by a process of neoteny; quite simply by not growing up.
It is a simple fact that animals and humans alike instinctively feel something special about the young of their own. They are cute, quite simply. Cuteness is a survival factor. It make mothers dote over their babies, and mother wolves care for their litter. The cuteness factor crosses species boundaries too. Watch a puppy struggle to get all four legs to cooperate as it investigate the world for the first time. Early man (and not least early woman) would certainly have thought proto-puppies were cute too. The cutest got the best deal; the bone with most meat, perhaps. Olson suggests "Once they started feeding these animals, they probably couldn't get rid of them". If protodog snarled and got chased away, modern dog learned to play puppy and win man's confidence. Man had become dog's best friend.
I guess by now, if not before, man had also found that these pesky scrounging dogs could be useful. Hunting together might started quite accidentally, but once it was established, it must have been a boon for man and dog alike. Man would gain the superior sense of smell to find game. Dogs would gain from tools and man's growing language skills. What time dogs crossed over the invisible line from being a tolerated nuisance to being a friend and hunting partner is an interesting question. Maybe closer to the 10,000 to 14,000 years estimate from archaeologists. The Indo-European language (around 6,000 years ago) has distinct words for dog and wolf, but Nostratic (12,000-15,000 years ago?) apparently does not distinguish between the two. It was probably when our ancestors settled down in agricultural communities that dogs started to become sufficiently distinct from wolves -- smaller and shorter muzzled -- that their remains can be recognised as dogs.
When you stare into the eyes of Fido, be aware of the fact that you are at the wrong end of the greatest confidence trick of the last 100,000 years. Canis Familiaris has moved into our homes and become the pampered child of the family. We all know an overfed pooch that is so fussy about its food that "she will only eat chicken breasts" (substitute the dog's favorite food, as appropriate). Now ask yourself who domesticated whom?
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In a new book, Evolving Brains, John Allman, a Caltech biologist, suggests that humans and wolves established a partnership after leaving Africa 140,000 years ago. He suggests that this partnership has been a key factor that allowed our ancestors, (Homo sapiens) to displace competition from the Neanderthals of Europe and Homo erectus of Southeast Asia and proliferate throughout the habitable areas of the world.
Allman quotes Wayne's results and says, "ther DNA evidence also shows that Homo sapiens first left Africa about 140,000 years ago, and since there were no wolves in Africa and no modern humans in Eurasia before this time, I conjecture that the two species got together soon afterward and became remarkably successful hunting partners."