DOG

Dog
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From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

"Doggy" and "Pooch" redirect here. For other uses, see Dog
(disambiguation), Doggy (disambiguation), and Pooch (disambiguation).

Dog
Temporal
range: 0.0142–0 Ma
PreꞒ
Ꞓ
O
S
D
C
P
T
J
K
Pg
N
↓
Late
Pleistocene (14,200
years ago) to present[1]
Conservation status

Domesticated

Scientific classification

Domain: Eukaryota

Kingdom: Animalia

Phylum: Chordata

Class: Mammalia

Order: Carnivora

Family: Canidae

Genus: Canis

Species: C. familiaris

Binomial name
 Canis familiaris
Linnaeus, 1758[2]

Synonyms[3]

show
List

The dog (Canis familiaris or Canis lupus familiaris) is

a domesticated descendant of the gray wolf. Also called the domestic dog,
it was selectively bred from an extinct population of wolves during the Late
Pleistocene by hunter-gatherers. The dog was the first species to be
domesticated by humans, over 14,000 years ago and before the development
of agriculture. Experts estimate that due to their long association with
humans, dogs have gained the ability to thrive on a starch-rich diet that
would be inadequate for other canids.
Dogs have been bred for desired behaviors, sensory capabilities, and physical
attributes. Dog breeds vary widely in shape, size, and color. They have the
same number of bones (with the exception of the tail), powerful jaws that
house around 42 teeth, and well-developed senses of smell, hearing, and
sight. Compared to humans, dogs have an inferior visual acuity, a superior
sense of smell, and a relatively large olfactory cortex. They perform many
roles for humans, such as hunting, herding, pulling
loads, protection, companionship, therapy, aiding disabled people,
and assisting police and the military.
Communication in dogs includes eye gaze, facial expression, vocalization,
body posture (including movements of bodies and limbs), and gustatory
communication (scents, pheromones, and taste). They mark their territories
by urinating on them, which is more likely when entering a new environment.
Over the millennia, dogs became uniquely adapted to human behavior; this
adaptation includes being able to understand and communicate with humans.
As such, the human–canine bond has been a topic of frequent study, and
dogs' influence on human society has given them the sobriquet of "man's
best friend".
The global dog population is estimated at 700 million to 1 billion, distributed
around the world. The dog is the most popular pet in the United States,
present in 34–40% of households. Developed countries make up
approximately 20% of the global dog population, while around 75% of dogs
are estimated to be from developing countries, mainly in the form of feral and
community dogs.
Taxonomy
Further information: Canis lupus dingo § Taxonomic debate – the domestic
dog, dingo, and New Guinea singing dog
Canine phylogeny with ages
of divergence

3.50 3.06 2.74 1.92 1.62

mya mya mya mya mya
 Cladogram and divergence of the
gray wolf (including the domestic
dog) among its closest extant
relatives[4]
Dogs are domesticated members of the family Canidae. They are classified as
a subspecies of Canis lupus, along with wolves and dingoes.[5][6] Dogs were
domesticated from wolves over 14,000 years ago by hunter-gatherers, before
the development of agriculture.[7][8] The remains of the Bonn–Oberkassel dog,
buried alongside humans between 14,000 and 15,000 years ago, are the
earliest to be conclusively identified as a domesticated dog. [9][7] Genetic
studies show that dogs likely diverged from wolves between 27,000 and
40,000 years ago.[10] The dingo and the related New Guinea singing
dog resulted from the geographic isolation and feralization of dogs
in Oceania over 8,000 years ago.[11][12]
Dogs, wolves, and dingoes have sometimes been classified as separate
species.[6] In 1758, the Swedish botanist and zoologist Carl Linnaeus assigned
the genus name Canis (which is the Latin word for "dog")[13] to the domestic
dog, the wolf, and the golden jackal in his book, Systema Naturae. He
classified the domestic dog as Canis familiaris and, on the next page,
classified the grey wolf as Canis lupus.[2] Linnaeus considered the dog to be a
separate species from the wolf because of its upturning tail (cauda
recurvata in Latin term), which is not found in any other canid.[14] In the 2005
edition of Mammal Species of the World, mammalogist W. Christopher
Wozencraft listed the wolf as a wild subspecies of Canis lupus and proposed
two additional subspecies: familiaris, as named by Linnaeus in 1758,
and dingo, named by Meyer in 1793. Wozencraft included hallstromi (the New
Guinea singing dog) as another name (junior synonym) for the dingo. This
classification was informed by a 1999 mitochondrial DNA study.[3]
The classification of dingoes is disputed and a political issue in Australia.
Classifying dingoes as wild dogs simplifies reducing or controlling dingo
populations that threaten livestock. Treating dingoes as a separate species
allows conservation programs to protect the dingo population. [15] Dingo
classification affects wildlife management policies, legislation, and societal
attitudes.[16] In 2019, a workshop hosted by the IUCN/Species Survival
Commission's Canid Specialist Group considered the dingo and the New
Guinea singing dog to be feral Canis familiaris. Therefore, it did not assess
them for the IUCN Red List of threatened species.[17]
Domestication
Main article: Domestication of the dog

Wolves (left) were domesticated by humans

into dogs (right)
The earliest remains generally accepted to be those of a domesticated dog
were discovered in Bonn-Oberkassel, Germany. Contextual, isotopic, genetic,
and morphological evidence shows that this dog was not a local wolf. [18] The
dog was dated to 14,223 years ago and was found buried along with a man
and a woman, all three having been sprayed with red hematite powder and
buried under large, thick basalt blocks. The dog had died of canine distemper.
[19]
This timing indicates that the dog was the first species to be
domesticated[20][21] in the time of hunter-gatherers,[22] which predates
agriculture.[1] Earlier remains dating back to 30,000 years ago have been
described as Paleolithic dogs, but their status as dogs or wolves remains
debated[23] because considerable morphological diversity existed among
wolves during the Late Pleistocene.[1]
DNA sequences show that all ancient and modern dogs share a common
ancestry and descended from an ancient, extinct wolf population that was
distinct from any modern wolf lineage. Some studies have posited that all
living wolves are more closely related to each other than to dogs, [24][22] while
others have suggested that dogs are more closely related to modern Eurasian
wolves than to American wolves.[25]
The dog is a domestic animal that likely travelled a commensal pathway into
domestication (i.e. humans initially neither benefitted nor were harmed by
wild dogs eating refuse from their camps). [23][26] The questions of when and
where dogs were first domesticated remains uncertain. [20] Genetic studies
suggest a domestication process commencing over 25,000 years ago, in one
or several wolf populations in either Europe, the high Arctic, or eastern Asia.
[27]
In 2021, a literature review of the current evidence infers that the dog was
domesticated in Siberia 23,000 years ago by ancient North Siberians, then
later dispersed eastward into the Americas and westward across Eurasia,
[18]
with dogs likely accompanying the first humans to inhabit the Americas.
[18]
Some studies have suggested that the extinct Japanese wolf is closely
related to the ancestor of domestic dogs. [25]
In 2018, a study identified 429 genes that differed between modern dogs and
modern wolves. As the differences in these genes could also be found in
ancient dog fossils, these were regarded as being the result of the initial
domestication and not from recent breed formation. These genes are linked
to neural crest and central nervous system development. These genes
affect embryogenesis and can confer tameness, smaller jaws, floppy ears,
and diminished craniofacial development, which distinguish domesticated
dogs from wolves and are considered to reflect domestication syndrome. The
study concluded that during early dog domestication, the initial selection was
for behavior. This trait is influenced by those genes which act in the neural
crest, which led to the phenotypes observed in modern dogs. [28]