Dogs Evolved From Waste Dump Wolves

Science!

Anyone who owns a dog knows that it will rummage around in the kitchen bin looking for food, given half a chance.

But this annoying behaviour may have a more profound undercurrent than we realise, according to scientists.

Comments

[JeremyR]

Er, I read this theory in a book about 10 years ago. Basically dogs domesticated themselves, by hanging around garbage dumps in early cities.

[Mediterranean Death Cult]

Except that garbage piles go back to long before villages, yeah, I read this idea around 2008. Hunters dropping large game often could not take advantage of whole carcasses, so they would live near the kills for a few days. Also, extra kills made at the outset of winter (when game animals were plentiful and fat) were left to freeze so they could be eaten on until spring.
Wolves that learned to be friendly toward man became a scavenger species.

[luelladaube]

til I saw the check which said $8537, I have faith that...my... mother in law had been really erning money part-time at there computar.. there uncle started doing this 4 less than 19 months and resantly cleared the loans on their appartment and purchased a gorgeous Lancia Straton. this is where I went........ http://BIT40.com

[Mediterranean Death Cult]

this guy'z ...english... remindz me uv mary hada liddel gambol.

It's a Lancia Stratos, you moron.

[VG Zaytsev]

Axelsson's group identified 36 such regions, carrying a little over a hundred genes. The analysis detected the presence of two major functional categories - genes involved in brain development and starch metabolism.

In the case of the latter, it seems dogs have many more genes that encode the enzymes needed to break down starch, something that would have been advantageous in an ancestor scavenging on the discarded wheat and other crop products of early farmers.

Those genetic changes also would have been autonomously selected for by dogs ancestors living as household animals over many generations. IE they were eating table scraps and bred for maximum loyalty and fidelity to their hosts.

[CHAUSSURES NIKE AIR MAX BW]

Anyone who owns a dog knows that it will rummage around in the kitchen bin looking for food, given half a chance.

[Canman]

As someone who actually trashpicks, I've seen a lot more cats than dogs going through trash.

[Agreenweed]

What a "trashy" article.