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How Dogs
Changed Human Evolution
Barbara J. Andrews,
Publisher
TheDogPlace
/ 2001
Canine Genetics have always fascinated me. I’m
anything but a scholar but every now and then, fragmented bits of information
pique my interest, and with a little research and an open mind, what I thought I
knew crumbles and a new concept is conceived, and for me, validated.
 I’ve
always wondered why there’s such affinity between dogs and man. We love cats and
horses and some of us have birds, bunnies, or reptiles. But as I have often
written, every one of those species would happily return to the wild and never
miss us.
Dogs are different. Unlike any other animal on earth,
they came to us! I know, you’ve been told it was because we had scraps of meat
around the entrance to our cave. No way. Here’s the hole in that story - we
didn’t even eat meat then!!! So much for the campfire myth. We didn't have fire
either.
I’ve also been told prehistoric man decided the wolf
would make a good hunting partner and so he domesticated it. Nope, before that
could have happened, he had to want to catch meat. Had man evolved few hundred
sooner, he could have domesticated
the saber-tooth tiger and gone big game hunting!
Jawbones Define Meat Eaters
Here’s the deal.
Neanderthal and Cro-Magnan man were both Homo Sapiens and they co-existed for a
while but a recent study of their jaw bones reveals that one began to eat meat.
At the risk of offending my horse-owning friends, I’ll point out the obvious.
Plant eaters are not as smart as meat eaters.
Let me say that another way. Carnivores have to be
smarter to catch food that can think, run away, and isn’t just right
underfoot. Every predator, from that saber tooth to the praying mantis or
bullfrog, has to stalk and “outwit” its prey. That takes cognitive skills the
herbivore just doesn’t have. So when pre-man stumbled over a
carcass and found it good eating, he had to become smarter to get the fresh stuff.
Nature always has an answer. Meat is higher in protein. It stimulates cellular
development, i.e. his brain grew as his “canine” teeth evolved.
Our meat-eating ancestor became dominant and his
vegan cousin became extinct. That's genetic for you. The meat eater survived and became – us. But
remember what I said about nature or the Grand Plan or whatever you want to call
it? Keep reading and you’ll be amazed.
Mitochondrial Canine DNA
indicates wolves and
dogs split into separate species some 100,000 years ago, about the same time
Neanderthal man’s brain grew and he moved out of Africa. It took a few centuries
but Homo sapiens evolved from a plant eating gatherer into a very effective
hunter when partnered with Canis lupus familiaris. Coincidentally (?),
the period spawned cultural growth often referred to as the “Upper Paleolithic
Revolution."
But there’s more. Studies suggest that today’s dogs
descended from three females in Asia about 15,000 years ago. Did Canis
familiaris come to us or did we go out and steal its pups for our children?
The debate will never be settled but about 13000 BC, the dog became the first
domesticated species.
That was long before we domesticated the next oldest
companion species. By 8500 BC, we developed rudimentary agriculture and became
more stationery. That generated garbage which brought rodents. Cats came and
controlled the rats and we even idolized them but I’m convinced we’re their
servants, not their friends. Big smile. Man began to tame and keep cattle, goats, and pigs
because it was easier to keep what we ate under control than to hunt for it. We
finally caught a horse and it is believed the horse was first ridden in what is
now Kazahkstan (central Asia) about 3600 BC, predating domestication of
the ass and the camel. Fast-forward…
Human and Canine Evolution
The earliest Americans had dogs. Their
ancestors migrated across the land bridge from Asia some 12,000 years ago and
came south as evidenced by the Kentucky and Clovis NM digs, and/or as was
presented during the 1999 science convention, North America may have been populated by the Ainu
from Japan (Akita owners, that’s a big heads-up) and people coming north from
South America.
We’ll let the anthropologists argue the
details but early Americans were nomadic big-game hunters who lived in small
bands, subsisting on animals such as musk ox and bison. They didn’t have horses
but we know they had dogs to find, chase, and help kill those food sources!
While it may fairly be said that horses literally
built civilization, so did the dog, but in a much more powerful way. Horses
arrived with the Spanish in 1540, forever changing America. When the Pueblo
Indians drove the Spanish out in 1680, those horses quickly became the power of
the Comanche. But let's get back to dogs and mankind.
The Genetic Connection Between Man and Dog
I’ve shown you that human
development is connected to dogs more so than any other living creature. In
fact, they have become more than hunter-buddies; dogs are man’s alter-egos,
models of honesty and character.
So why haven't scientists and geneticists taken a closer look at the dog and why it came to us? Can
dogs help us evolve
even more? What’s a hundred thousand years? In the span of evolution, it’s only
the blink of an eye. Man has evolved technologically but morally, I’m not so
sure. There’s a lot more to learn from the dog and humans would a better
species if we paid more attention to our Best Friend.
Dog language has no curse words. Dogs are always
happy. The only thing that dampens a dog’s joy in life is loss of a pack member.
Every day is a good day for a dog. If he eats today, that’s good but that’s not
as important as being with you. Starve him, abuse him but he will not forsake
you. Sure, we’ve all heard that before but who dares to compare it to man’s level of
loyalty? Before you defend humans, look how we treat our own children!
And regrettably, I also have to say this, look what we’ve
done to dogs!!! We experiment on them (yes, we still do that) abandon and abuse
them and genetically manipulate them in ways that nature never intended. We rip
out their reproductive organs because "it's the right thing to do"!!
Wolf packs, even feral dog packs rarely fight each
other. They know that’s counterproductive; dangerous to their survival as a
species. Once dominance is established, usually without a fight because dogs are
so intuitive, there is harmony. And the harmony lasts because generally
speaking, dogs are not mean, vindictive, sneaky, double-crossers like some other
species... I could go on but if you read this far, you are an intelligent, inquiring dog person
who is beginning to nod in agreement.
As my father once said to me, it’s amazing what we
don’t know we knew until we think about it. You’re thinking, you’ve read this
far. Now that we know why dogs are really here, maybe the scholars can figure
out what we’re supposed to be when we’ve finish evolving. Maybe it is only a
dog.
Where Dogs Come From... sent in by Dave Dorsett - Guaranteed to make you (and Adam) smile.
Who is Served, Man or Dog? 2011's evolutionary insight into a survival partnership threatened
by animal rights activists.
http://www.thedogplace.org/Genetics/Dogs-Changed-Evolution_Andrews-08.asp
#11060101
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