Tag Archive for 'Canidae'

Hansen Wheat & Temrin provide the first empirical evidence that wolves, and not only dogs, express interspecific play with a human based on social-communicative cues. This image shows a wolf puppy named Flea, who comes from a non-fetching litter born in 2015. Image credit: Christina Hansen Wheat.

Wolf Puppies Play Fetch Too, Researchers Find

Jan 20, 2020 by News Staff

In a series of experiments, a duo of researchers from the Department of Zoology at Stockholm University has observed eight-week-old wolf puppies spontaneously...

Root-Gutteridge et al show that the ability to spontaneously recognize both the same phonemes across different speakers, and cues to identity across speech utterances from unfamiliar speakers, is present in domestic dogs and thus not a uniquely human trait. Image credit: Anja Gh.

Dogs Understand Spoken Words Better than We Thought

Dec 9, 2019 by News Staff

Dogs are able to listen to different people saying the same word and recognize it as the same word, ignoring the differences between speakers, and can...

A canid in Cassell’s Natural History. Image credit: Peter Martin Duncan / North Carolina State University / NCSU Libraries.

Scientists Sequence RNA of 14,300-Year-Old Wolf Puppy

Aug 1, 2019 by News Staff

An international team of scientists has isolated and sequenced RNA from the permafrost-preserved liver, cartilage and muscle tissue of a 14,300-year-old...

Kaminski et al show that, in only 33,000 years, domestication transformed the facial muscle anatomy of dogs specifically for facial communication with humans; dogs with expressive eyebrows had a selection advantage and ‘puppy dog eyes’ are the result of selection based on humans’ preferences. Image credit: JacLou DL.

Dogs Evolved New Muscles around Eyes to Better Communicate with Humans, Study Says

Jun 18, 2019 by News Staff

Domestication shaped wolves (Canis lupus) into dogs (Canis familiaris) and transformed both their behavior and their anatomy. A new study, published in...

The head of a Pleistocene wolf. Image credit: Albert Protopopov.

30,000-Year-Old Head of Pleistocene Wolf Found in Siberian Permafrost

Jun 13, 2019 by News Staff

A perfectly preserved head of a large wolf has been unearthed from the melting permafrost in eastern Siberia. The head of a Pleistocene wolf. Image credit:...

While wolves rely heavily on cooperation, dogs do so substantially less thus leading to the prediction that wolves are more prosocial than dogs. However, domestication hypotheses suggest dogs have been selected for higher cooperation, leading to the opposing prediction -- increased prosocial tendencies in dogs. To tease apart these hypotheses, Dale et al adapted a paradigm previously used with pet dogs to directly compare dogs and wolves. In a prosocial choice task, wolves acted prosocially to in-group partners; providing significantly more food to a pack-member compared to a control where the partner had no access to the food. Dogs did not. Additionally, wolves did not show a prosocial response to non-pack members, in line with previous research that social relationships are important for prosociality. Image credit: Dale et al, doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0215444.

Wolves are More Prosocial than Dogs, New Study Finds

May 8, 2019 by News Staff

In touchscreen experiments that allowed animals to provide food to others, wolves (Canis lupus) acted more prosocially toward their pack members than did...

A 3D model created from a dog skull discovered at Cuween Hill chambered cairn, Orkney, Scotland. Image credit: Historic Environment Scotland.

Scientists Reconstruct Face of Neolithic Dog

Apr 22, 2019 by News Staff

The face of a 4,000-year-old dog has been brought back to life by a team of researchers and forensic artists. A 3D model created from a dog skull discovered...

The red fox (Vulpes vulpes). Image credit: Dia Picard.

Researchers Sequence Red Fox Genome

Aug 8, 2018 by News Staff

An international team of scientists has successfully sequenced the genome of the red fox (Vulpes vulpes). The red fox (Vulpes vulpes). Image credit: Dia...

Balme et al present the results of direct dating of dingo bones from their oldest known archaeological context, Madura Cave on the Nullarbor Plain; these dates demonstrate that dingoes were in southern Australia by between 3,348 and 3,081 years ago. Image credit: Jacqueline Wales.

Study Claims Dingoes Reached Australia 3,500 Years Ago

Jul 26, 2018 by News Staff

A team of scientists in Australia has uncovered new evidence that suggests dingoes (Canis familiaris dingo) arrived on the continent around 3,500 years...

Canadian Eskimo dogs. Illustration by John James Audubon and John Bachman (1845-1848).

New World’s First Dogs Came from Siberia: Study

Jul 9, 2018 by News Staff

According to a study published in the journal Science, the earliest New World dogs were not domesticated from North American wolves; instead, they form...

Canids Have 21 Distinct Howling Dialects, Say Scientists

Feb 10, 2016 by Enrico de Lazaro

Various species and subspecies of canids (wolves, coyotes, etc.) have distinguishing repertoires of howling, according to a team of scientists who analyzed...

White-cheeked macaques (Macaca leucogenys), juveniles of different age. Image credit: Cheng Li et al.

Top 20 New Species Discovered in 2015

Jan 28, 2016 by Natali Anderson

A shape-shifting frog from Ecuador, a giant virus from Siberia, a bioluminescent shark, a ruby seadragon, and the world’s smallest snail are among the...

This picture of elusive bush dogs was taken by a camera trap in the wet tropical forest of Pirre, Panama. Image credit: GEMAS Panamá / Fundación Natura / Fondo Darién / Fundación Yaguará Panamá / Southern Illinois University.

Camera Traps ‘Capture’ Elusive Bush Dogs in Panama

Jan 20, 2016 by Natali Anderson

Motion-sensitive cameras placed at several sites in Panama have captured images of the bush dog (Speothos venaticus), one of the most enigmatic of the...

Early canids Hesperocyon (left) and Sunkahetanka were both ambush-style predators. Image credit: Mauricio Anton.

Canids Evolved with Climate Change, Says New Study

Aug 19, 2015 by News Staff

A new study of North American canid fossils published in the journal Nature Communications suggests that the evolutionary path of the family Canidae (dogs...

The African golden wolf (Canis anthus) in Serengeti National Park, Tanzania. Image credit: Gordon E. Robertson / CC BY-SA 3.0.

African Golden Wolf: Scientists Discover ‘New’ Canid Species

Jul 31, 2015 by News Staff

African and Eurasian golden jackals are genetically distinct lineages, according to a research team led by Dr Klaus-Peter Koepfli from the Smithsonian...