I know that this is an oversimplification but the process made me chuckle.
I believe that, in reality, wolves domesticated themselves. They started hanging around humans because it was a mutually beneficial arrangement.
inside of all of us are two wolves.
except Mozart, he had like ten or twelve.
That’s why he’s Wolfgang.
Also Theophilus and Amadeus. That guy really loved god.
Holy crap. This is the best shower thought I’ve read. Good job! I’m gonna share this with others.
Didn’t wolves and dogs descend from a shared ancestor, not dogs from wolves?
Dogs and wolves are the same specie - just a different subspecie. A Chihuahua could breed with a wolf.
Nope, genetically wolves and dogs are basically identical. Dogs are simply hundreds of generations of domesticated wolves.
A Wikipedia scan by a layman (me) seems to say that is something that happened after their divergence from a common ancestor.
The dog’s similarity to the grey wolf is the result of substantial dog-into-wolf gene flow,[3] with the modern grey wolf being the dog’s nearest living relative.
The dog is a wolf-like canid.[7][8][9] The genetic divergence between the dog’s ancestor and modern wolves occurred between 20,000 and 40,000 years ago, just before or during the Last Glacial Maximum[2][1] (20,000–27,000 years ago). This timespan represents the upper time-limit for the commencement of domestication because it is the time of divergence but not the time of domestication, which occurred later.
The same article says they are the same species (different subspecies) 🤷♂️.
You are correct. The ancestor of the modern dog is a now-extinct gray wolf different from the ones around today.
How is that an upper-limit for domestication?
Couldn’t, theoretically, domestication of the ancestor wolves cause the divergence?
One could theoretically create a Chihuahua/wolf hybrid. Imagine a 150lb. wolf with the brains and attitude of a Chihuahua. The mind boggles.
Chihuahuolf.
Wolfhuahua
Chiwolfhua.
As I understand it yes, but that’s why I said it was an oversimplification in my post.
