#Evolution of Dogs

[benkaden]

Briefmarkenblock / Miniature Sheet

Guyana: The Evolution of Dogs from Wolf to Woof

Ausgabetag: 23.10.2012

[shay-scribbles]

Evolution of the Future (2024)

I often wonder how wolves would see the abandoned dogs that roam the streets, do you think that they're more akin to wolves than the fluffiest husky?

Struggling to survive in a world that does not want them.

[jayrockin]

I finally (got help) slapping Wordpress into shape and Runaway to the Stars is now releasing as a public webcomic! Thank you so much for your support over the years, and sticking with me while I'm slowly chewing my way through this book. I'm very excited to share this story! It'll be updating every Tuesday, Thursday, and Saturday thanks to the massive Patreon backlog. Patreon will continue to update as I finish pages, which happens on a sporadic non-schedule.

If you experience bugs with the site report them to me. Some things may occasionally break, as coding problems tend to be a very "whack-a-mole" affair; and I'm still getting used to the interface.

[critterbitter]

Congratulations! Your Tynamo evolved into an Eelektrik!

(Bonus below!)

(The eel dog quadrupled in weight)

Link to submas masterpost!

[yourcrazygirlokris]

After much consideration, it has become apparent that the original image is slightly outdated due to the discovery of a new species and advancements in technology to research cellular life. Therefore, we have determined this new species, the space niche, is an offshoot of the transitional and aquatic niches. It is suspected this is due to the similar facial structure and anatomy of the aquatic niche, as well as the adaptation to combat shown in the evolution from the transitional forme to the underground niche, as well as the agility and dexterity capabilities shown in the former. As for the shared ancestor, shared similarities have been found between it and it’s offshoots, as well as having the capability of life that can adapt to new environments.

[totallyprentiss]

she’s not just aging gracefully she’s aging aggressively hot.

[polymerclay]

Logdogs! They're the feral ancestors of the domesticated pencildogs. Lots of animals have a commensalistic relationship with these creatures, using them for a range of things such as transportation and camoflauge. ^_^

[sahsukay]

in my fix-it everybody lived alternate universe kakashi is that girl on r/aitah whos training her boyfriend like a shelter dog

[angelofalls]

The Evolution of Angelo 🔥 (2013-present)

[unbfacts]

[breadandlottery]

Subtlety 2.0 <3

[boobookittenartblog]

Evolution of Dogs poster by Julio Lacerda

[mammoth-clangen]

So, first off, as a paleontologist… thank you for that rant. It’s been driving me up the wall that people are going “oh look we revived the dire wolf using gray wolves!!” Even if you ignore the whole issue of de-extinction wolves aren’t even the closest living relative! Jackals and African wild dogs are more closely related to it, and they aren’t anywhere close to being in the same genus.

And of course, de-extinction is a whole other issue. Why are they so focused on the mammoth? At least the thylacine went extinct about a hundred years ago so the niche could still be there. But still, why focus on them? If you want to de-extinct something, why not focus on, oh I don’t know, the northern white rhino which still has two living members for sequencing and who have a living subspecies.

And further more, it’s genuinely cruel to bring most of these back. You think a wooly mammoth that lived in the last glacial maximum would be happy in todays climate that is consistently getting hotter? You think the dodo would appreciate the fact that it’s one habitat has been mostly destroyed? You think the thylacine would enjoy trying to outcompete the dingos that have moved into its niche? No. They wouldn’t.

For the mammoths, it’s especially cruel since they are herd animals and you’d need to clone a lot of them at one time for them to be happy.

And I mean, look. I’d be lying if I said I didn’t want to see these creatures alive. As unlikely as it is, I keep a sliver of hope that the thylacine might still be out there. But that doesn’t mean de-extinction is good. Like it or not, they went extinct for a reason. Yes, that reason may be because of humans, but it is still a reason. You bring them back and they’ll go extinct again unless they are given extreme protection.

They need to focus on living creatures or, if they are desperate to bring something that’s completely extinct back, focus on creatures that have gone extinct within the last two decades.

Ugh, sorry for the mini rant but as someone who understands extinction (including the current Anthropocene mass extinction), bringing things back is not the way to go. I can point to multiple genuses that went extinct for a good reason.

Hello fellow palaeontologist! 🤝 My area of study was actually Dromornithid ichnotaxonomy but carnivorans are holding me hostage nowadays, it seems...

Unfortunately, you have fallen prey to another (thankfully, less insidious) piece of misinformation! Dire wolves aren't wolves, but they are no more closely related to Jackals or African Wild Dogs!

Aenocyon is an outgroup to all wolf-like canids, jackals included!

I've seen the Aenocyon/Lupulella/Lycaon relatedness touted often, and am guilty of repeating it myself before I re-read the paper.

A possible reason for this confusion that African jackals are considered the most basal of the extant, wolf-like canids; as seen on the cladogram above.

Therefore, the ~5.7million year old common ancestor of Aenocyon and the wolf/jackal/dhole lineage would likely have looked more like a jackal. Then Aenocyon convergently evolved a very wolfish skeleton because of their similar lifestyles!

This is also why I chose to reconstructed my Aenocyon with a shoulder patch, seeing many canids seem to have some sort of cape marking.

The 2021 paper that concluded the dire wolf isn't a wolf at all, is unfortunately paywalled :/ Without full access to the paper it's hard to be sure exactly where Aenocyon fits within the larger Canidae family tree (if they discussed it at all), but the abstract describes them as having "an early New World origin".

It seems they were a true outgroup to modern wolf-like canids, being the earliest branching member of Canina! They're not too different from sabercats, in that way.

Also if anyone is following the ongoing edit war on the Dire Wolf Wikipedia page, I beg you to ignore the "taxonomy based on morphology" section. It is only useful as a historical reference for how we used to view Aenocyon dirus as Canis dirus for a long time. Current science supports these morphological similarities being convergent, contrary to what Colossal Lies are being told...

---

I already partially addressed Mammoths (and the issues with their herds inbreeding) in this other ask, but I do agree completely with your points.

Having the GMO wolves raised without another older wolf or dog parental figures is frankly, just cruel. Any vet will tell you hand-reared and imprinted animals are significantly more prone to behavioural issues down the line. Mammoths would be worse again, because unlike Romulus and Remus, there is no chance of even having a twin to keep them company.

And yes; What could possibly go wrong with bringing back a polar-adapted, woolly proboscidean, into a world where even winters are getting progressively warmer?

I too, would love to see extinct animals in the wild. I'd be lying if I said I don't secretly hope for many of them to pull a coelacanth on us. But sadly, I don't think that's likely, and nor do I think we should be trying to make it happen.

---

Hank Green brought up something poignant about this dire wolf debacle, which is that extinction is not as simplistic as we imagine it to be. It's not just the death of a species.

"It's the destruction of a space in the natural environment for a species."

And that is really it, you can't just "bring back" an extinct species, because you aren't bringing their niche back with them.

Successful reintroductions of species that were locally extirpated or made entirely extinct in the wild have only worked because effort was put into securing a niche and ecosystem that had been lost.

And even well-planned, well-funded reintroductions struggle, but at least they understood the assignment.

Colossal, on the other hand, seems to think that adding back their very-roughly-wolf-shaped 'jenga block' to the ecosystem 'tower' will completely stop the collapse. But the real 'collapse' is caused by habitat destruction, and no amount of GMO wolves, mammoths or thylacines can stop that.

Bringing the species in to save the ecosystem is climbing ass-first up a tree. We need to save the ecosystem for the species. And all this is still ignoring the sad truth for a lot of extinct animals:

For many of them, there is no 'tower' to save.

[jayrockin]

This animal is called Zngti or Jngti on the southern Shess peninsula, and Anglophone humans sometimes refer to them as "centaur dogs" or "hawkdogs." They are an omnivorous predator that occupied a niche similar to a fox prior to domestication, and now fill a variety of roles in centaur settlements. They descended from a viviparous sister clade of centaurs where the hind limbs developed into a balancing organ similar to the tail of an Earth vertebrate, but did not specialize into claspers and a pouch such as in Tep (the silk dairy livestock).

Zngti do not have a strong pack coordination instinct and are not commonly used for hunting large game or herding livestock. In some ways they're comparable to domestic cats, often left unsupervised around food storage or crops to hunt vermin, but their territoriality also makes them useful for livestock defense or sentry roles.

Although there are no commonly held breed standards, different regions may have one or two specialized varieties for different functions. For game hunting, varieties tend to have a build similar to the wildtype but with flashy coat patterns. Tunnel hunting and vermin control varieties tend to have stout bodies and a bearded face to protect them from clawing prey and dirt entering their eyes and nostrils. Bulky guardian breeds are variously used to defend livestock, property, and children from threatening wildlife or strangers. Sentry alert breeds will raise a continuous "siren" howl through their excurrent nostrils in response to intruders. Most Zngti are work animals first and companions second, but in some urbanized regions toy breeds can be found. Derived from squat vermin hunting varieties, they are usually brightly colored with concave skulls that make them resemble a trunk-smiling centaur.

Although to centaurs Zngti are relatively small animals, they are often heavier and taller than humans. Some guardian breeds can be as large as a cow.

PATREON | Runaway to the Stars

[canisalbus]

what if machete isn't actually a canine at all but a case of highly advanced convergent evolution in which his crumpled tissue ancestors gradually developed doglike traits to the point of being nearly indistinguishable from sighthounds

.

[silvermoon424]

Me when I remember how dogs were the very first domesticated animal and have evolved alongside humans for thousands of years, resulting in our two species becoming adapted to each other and able to easily communicate.

Me when I remember that humans and dogs have been around each other so much for so much time that dogs are better at reading human behavior than our closest genetic relatives (the great apes).

Me when I remember that dogs can easily understand our facial expressions and gestures, while most people are able to intuit things from a simple bark (if the dog is friendly or aggressive, big or small, nervous or excited, etc).

Me when I remember how, millennia ago, some wolves decided to hang around humans for extended periods of time and those humans thought "you know, we could make them our friends."

Me when I remember that dogs are called man's best friend for a reason.