"The Evolving Dog"     

Facts About Evolution.  

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    Updated: 12/24/05 08:41 

Biological Evolution - is the believed process by which the first and most primitive of living organisms, like the one-celled creature the amoeba, developed into the plants and animal life known today. Until the 18th century it was generally believed that each species of life was separately created by God. The most fitting evolutionary theory was put forward by Charles Darwin and A. R. Wallace in 1858: they proposed that new species arose by a process of natural selection. Later work and advance technology has supported Darwin’s theory, which is now generally accepted. 

Evolution - Survival of the fittest - If we believe in evolution, the propensity to survive, we must recognize that most creatures are the progeny of their ancestors. When talking about insects, fossils tell us that they were living over 100 million years ago. We must recognize that climate and global environment has changed over the millennia, and such variations would have changed the living conditions of many organisms. Some so bad that many either died out, or changed themselves, to accommodate the new conditions. This being that those among them with a greater propensity to survive any change, lived on.

Using this pattern of events, when we talk of an intelligence in something like bacteria, we must realize it is not like any intelligence we might have. Bacteria does what it does due to a billion repetitions or changes of certain characteristics, which has allowed it to survive.

© Roy G Symonds BA [Law] 2000 - 2006

FROM: http://www.thesahara.net/mrsa.htm

Researchers have worked out how to identify a dog's breed just by looking at its DNA, Science magazine reports.

This is a litter of seemingly pure Rottweilers. But three appear to be another dog-type. This could be some throw-back from a another type of dog, entering the lineage, in the recent past, or even 100 years ago. It could even be a mutation; the start of a new type of dog, not produced through some kind of selection, but just the mechanics of evolution.

    

Canis Familiaris  -  the Domestic Dog

The Domestic Dog, it is said has been with us for over 100,000 years. The dog you see today in over 700 different breeds is a pole apart from the first dog that came out of the woods and befriended Man. It seems most uncharacteristic that the wolf-like creature that was the original dog has been bred-out to produce canines such as the Poodle, Great Dane and Pekinese. Some have even ventured to say that all domestic dogs may have sprung from just one pregnant female; one that may have limped injured, and showing servility, into some village to be kept and nurtured, to begin with, for possibly some amusement for the villagers, although for the female dog, it might have been for survival.

This is notwithstanding the fact that recent archaeological studies have shown that about 100,000 years ago, when the dog first appeared to be living with the Homo Sapiens, another man-like creature, the Neanderthal, began to disappear mainly through general gradual extinction and obiter breeding with Homo Sapiens. Nevertheless, significantly or not, dogs did not adopt the ginger-headed Neanderthals. Maybe they were not given the chance; perhaps they were waived away as we would now do to a swarm of bees. Uniquely however, Homo Sapiens had the ability of some speech and communicated primitively this way.

Whilst the Neanderthal also had the ability for speech, unlike say today's chimpanzee, they were unable to use this properly because of a badly developed jaw construction. Therefore, it is a presumption that the Homo Sapiens along with some liking for the dog, plus an ability to communicate with speech and body language, New Man and the Canine became friends. 

As there were probably other animals in the surrounding woods,  Man at first must have just tolerated the intrusion. Later they found that they could use the dogs as an early warning system and as valuable guards against attacking marauders, such as the Neanderthals, or even other more ferocious predators such as large cats, or bears. They were also obviously developed into companions of sorts, baby-sitters even and of course food. The dogs first came to scavenge and were either greeted openly, suspiciously or chased off.  When both parties  reached some amiable point of toleration, the dog began its domestication. However, these wolf-like creatures were wild animals and in the early days, it must have been clearly a love-hate relationship.

This strange, almost rare affiliation, has developed into what it is today, purely because of Man's ultimate dominance over the dog. When a dog showed any hostility or disdain the dominant Homo Sapiens would just kill it and eat it. Those dogs that were friendly and servile, as any dogs are in presence of their Alpha leader, were doled out toleration, and this situation was unknowingly cultivated.

This 'program' was exploited more so in puppies; any puppy showing any hostility would get the chop, and that was not a pork-chop. However, naturally any wide-eyed pretty-little thing that could amuse, lick, play and comfort Man's primitive ideals would be allowed to flourish and given permission to feed off the scraps that Man left for it, purely because it pleased early Man to do so. This is perhaps why the young are so appealing; bred to appease our aesthetics, allowing the cute and gentle to remain, and plain and the aggressive to become the cuisine of a long ago era.

A similar more contemporary program has recently taken place in Germany. A large pack of African Wild Dogs was captured and attempts were made to single out the overly aggressive ones and have them removed. Others that showed some sign of servility or potential kin to the humans were encouraged to be so. And so forth with their offspring, aggression was separated out and approved consideration was advanced. Eventually, the hostile traits of the Wild Dog were eventually dispersed, and it might be hard to appreciate that they were nothing but just pets, and not a wild animal.

Over the centuries, different sections of the domesticated dog society evolved into different sizes and shapes, to suit the environment that they were in, whether it was purposely created by Humanity or not.

This parallel affinity is now almost embedded in our genes, the relationship with Man and Dog is primeval. This fact is compounded by the fact that by far, any recorded feral children, or children totally abandoned by their parents, that have emerged in the news, have been otherwise raised by dogs. 

It is said that Romulus and Remus were raised by wolves. And in the wild, almost all cases of abandoned children, who have survived, have been subsequently adopted and raised by dogs. We might consider that any child not embraced by the canine simply perished or was eaten by a less  informed animal. This might prove there to be some bond, that goes further that the maxim that the dog is our best friend. 

However, sadly in humans there is only a small window of opportunity that allows us to turn out like our peers. If a baby is raised in a feral environment it will take on the instincts and characteristics of the animal that is raising it. When the child gets older than 5-7years, it is so much harder, if not impossible, to then turn or revert that child back to being 'human'. The mechanics in the brain that permit our understanding of Grammar and syntax, does not develop and is lost forever. Needless to say, this does not diminish our historical bond with the dog, it just proves how close these two species have evolved together. In fact we share 75% of our genes; three quarters of our makeup is also in Canis Familiaris. 

Therefore, whether the Canine was instrumental in changing history by helping the accelerated ultimate decline of the Neanderthal 30,000 years ago, nobody will ever really know. Nevertheless, today the dog now out numbers its early masters by over a thousand times, such is its adaptation to domestication, such is its akin to us. Perhaps the moral of this wagging tale is that you should always be kind to one that might seemingly be inferior to you, as one day the tables may be turned.

 © Copyright  Roy G Symonds 1995 -  2006

     

The Parrot, more intelligent than the Dog? Why?

IF YOU OWN SEVERAL BITCHES IT IS APPARENTLY COMMON FOR THEM TO COME INTO SEASON TOGETHER. WHAT WOULD BE THE ADVANTAGES OF THIS TO THE BITCHES?

Many female mammals, including humans, actually start, over a period of time, to have their 'season' at the same time, if they live within the same family / pack / herd. We suspect that this has obviously grown through evolution, and we could then perhaps suspect that it helps to maintain the species. So the females have no choice in the matter. 

 In many non-predatory animals, like antelopes and the like, they coincide their breeding, mating and ultimately giving birth, to occur at almost the same time.

The Reindeer are known to have many hundreds of their progeny born all on the same day. This is to allow many newborns a better chance of survival from attacking predators, like wolves, bears etc.

Most predators, will and most often, can only stalk and kill young or sick animals. A newborn, for a few hours, is very vulnerable, and stands a very good chance of being killed. But if all the predators kill as many as they can, and have their fill, they will no longer be hungry and the urge to kill will recede temporarily, giving the remaining newborns a chance to survive, and become stronger, and thus maintain the species.

However, this begs the question, how does the body of mammal know? With the Reindeer etc, perhaps climate, seasons and weather has a part to play, along with evolution. Even with the modern day wolf, we could accept that it might have had predators themselves once, but with humans it is harder to fathom. 

And, again, how does the body know; what mechanism is there that eventually synchronizes the menstrual cycle of women, and other female mammals, who live together? Perhaps a hormone is given off in their breath, that will synchronize them all to coincide. 

Who is to say what we could or should evolve into?

This is our Editor 

Dog Twins

As in all things when you produce a million or a billion of them the rule of averages would make some of them different from the rest. In a factory if you produce a million widgets, 1, 2 3, or more will be faulty or malformed, whatever. This could also be part of the Chaos Theory.

As you know this happens in humans and animals, most of us are born OK but some are not quite so 'perfect'. When sheep have two lambs, they might be twins but also might not. Life is a lottery in the DNA mix.

Twins are two individuals born from the same pregnancy, one egg. Identical twins, same DNA, are produced when a fertilized egg splits in two and develops as two fetuses of the same sex. More commonly, non-identical (or fraternal) twins are produced when two eggs are fertilized at the same time; they may be of different sexes. 

Whilst by far, the majority of dogs are not twins, some are born twins the same way as we are. I have not seen it personally but it does happen. All dogs are born in small sacs, the same as all mammals, the sac is then broken open and the puppy is almost born again. When you get TWO puppies in the same sac these are twins.

What is DNA?

DNA - deoxyribonucleic acid. The chief ingredient of the chromosomes, DNA is necessary for the organization and functioning of living cells.

The molecular structure of DNA was proposed by J. D. Watson and F. H. Crick in 1953. It consists of a double helix of two nucleic acid strands coiled around each other. Each strand carries a sequence of the four chemical bases, or chemical building blocks - nucleotides

Adenine (A), Guanine (G), Cytosine (C), and Thymine (T). 

The bases on one strand are joined by hydrogen bonds to the bases on the other, like the rungs of a ladder. The rungs always connect the same pairs of bases: A always binds with T and G with C. Before the cell divides, the rungs of the ladder break and the two strands separate. Each then acts as a ‘blueprint’ for the cell to manufacture new complementary strands. The result is two identical copies of the original helix. This property of self-replication enables DNA to duplicate the genes of an organism during the cell divisions of growth (see mitosis) and the production of germ cells (see meiosis).

Examples of information specified by a gene would be the black / red coat color or the merle / solid pattern of a dog. Genes are passed via chromosomes to the offspring when sperm and egg fuse during fertilization. At this point, an individual's genetic blueprint is fixed; the fertilized egg begins the process of developing into the new individual by faithfully executing the instructions contained within its DNA.

Dogs have 78 chromosomes while humans have 46. The chromosomes are located in the cell's control center, the nucleus. 

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