From shepherding, hunting, water or sledding… Since he tamed the wolf to make it become a dog 15,000 to 30,000 years ago, man has been able to specialize it to the extreme.
This domestication is probably
"the most substantial behavioral genetic experiment"
in which humanity has been able to engage, estimates in
Cell
a team of researchers led by Elaine Ostrander, geneticist at the American National Institutes of Health and world reference in genetics of the dog.
“The dog is, to my knowledge, the only domestic species presenting such a diversity of phenotypes
(all of the apparent characters, such as the color of the hair, editor’s note)
and of behaviors selected for different objectives.
explains Benoît Hédan, veterinarian and CNRS research engineer in the Dog Genetics team at the University of Rennes.
“Is this a result of the duration of selection, or is this species more malleable?
It's hard to say, but here we have an unparalleled model of study...
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