very interesting natural history of dog domestication, thank you.
i would appreciate any reference you or the Post can provide.
if you will allow, i will correct minor errors.
Fraggle Rocker said:
DNA analysis in the past couple of years has proven that dogs and wolves are actually the same species. In effect, wolves are simply one breed of dog: the oldest.
No. That may have been suggested, and it is a testable hypothesis, however DNA analysis has proven nothing of the kind, and I don't think that it's possible to prove it that way. To ask, "How much DNA differentiation does it take to make a species?" is meaningless, because species are not defined by the amount of genetic differentiation.
Currently the Canidae taxonomy is as below.
Canidae
* Alopex
* Alopex lagopus (Arctic fox)
* Atelocynus
* Atelocynus microtis (small-eared dog)
* Canis
* Canis adustus (side-striped jackal)
* Canis aureus (golden jackal)
* Canis familiaris (dog)
* Canis latrans (coyote)
* Canis lupus (gray wolf)
* Canis lupus baileyi (Mexican gray wolf)
* Canis lupus chanco (Mongolian wolf)
* Canis lupus hodophilax (Japanese wolf)
* Canis lupus pallipes (Indian wolf)
* Canis lycaon (eastern Canadian wolf)
* Canis mesomelas (black-backed jackal)
* Canis mesomelas elongae (eastern African black-backed jackal)
* Canis rufus (red wolf)
* Canis simensis (Ethiopian wolf)
* Canis sp.
* Chrysocyon
* Chrysocyon brachyurus (maned wolf)
* Cuon
* Cuon alpinus (dhole)
* Dusicyon
* Dusicyon thous (crab-eating fox)
* Lycaon
* Lycaon pictus (African hunting dog)
* Nyctereutes
* Nyctereutes procyonoides (raccoon dog)
* Nyctereutes procyonoides koreensis
* Nyctereutes procyonoides procyonoides
* Otocyon
* Otocyon megalotis (bat-eared fox)
* Pseudalopex
* Pseudalopex culpaeus (culpeo fox)
* Pseudalopex griseus (Argentine gray fox)
* Pseudalopex gymnocercus (pampas fox)
* Pseudalopex sechurae (Sechura desert fox)
* Pseudalopex vetulus (hoary fox)
* Speothos
* Speothos venaticus (bush dog)
* Urocyon
* Urocyon cinereoargenteus (gray fox)
* Urocyon littoralis (island gray fox)
* Vulpes
* Vulpes chama (cape fox)
* Vulpes corsac (Corsac fox)
* Vulpes macrotis (kit fox)
* Vulpes macrotis zinseri
* Vulpes velox (kit fox)
* Vulpes vulpes (red fox)
* Vulpes zerda (fennec fox)
* Vulpes sp.
Fraggle Rocker said:
4. Brain size. Brains require a lot of protein.
brains require a lot of fat! to make the myelin sheaths. when you have children, that's the diet thing pediatricians remind parents of constantly, lots of fat for brain develpment.
Fraggle Rocker said:
Wolves get a lot of protein because they eat mostly meat. Dogs get less protein because they eat a lot more carbohydrates. As a result, dog brains are a bit smaller than wolf brains.
I don't think that's true. Could you please provide a reference that concludes that differences in brain size between wolves and domestic dogs are attributed to the amount of carbohydrate in the diet. I suspect it's merely a matter of body size difference, i.e. allometric differences.
Fraggle Rocker said:
But surprisingly this group also includes the Lhasa Apso, Pekinese, Shizi (or Shih Tzu as people insist on spelling it),
you mean
Shizi Gou, from;
http://www.encyclopedia4u.com/s/shih-tzu.html