As they say, “the dog is man’s best friend”, and indeed it is one of the greatest and oldest alliances in the world. The dog, among the domestic species, is in fact the most well-known and appreciated.
Being present in various historical contexts to help man, such as in wars, herding and hunting.
There are several dog breeds with multiple characteristics, but what not everyone knows is that they have a fascinating evolutionary background. When did the partnership between man and dog began? How could a wild animal with aggressive characteristics have given rise to all the dog breeds we know?
You’ll notice that the answer to these questions is based on Evolution (from 2 different species) and on the process of Domestication carried out by humans in the past. Which has allowed us to shape even the appearance of these beings!
In this article, we’re going to explain the great evolutionary journey that allowed prehistoric wolves to become the domestic dogs that are part of our lives. We will analyze to what extent natural and also artificial (later) selection influenced this transformation and which characteristics of the wolf that remain in our pets.
Fig. 1- From the Wolf To The Dog (Source: Ethology.eu)
Historical Context-Legend of Alexander the Great
There are various contexts and stories from the past in which dogs have played an important role in human
man’s life. Including protecting him and safeguarding his life in many situations. One of the most fascinating stories that demonstrates this involves the great general Alexander the Great. A famous historical figure, and his dog, Peritas. Alexander led the battle of Gaugamela, against the Persian army. According to legend, it was one of Alexander’s toughest battles.
The story goes that in the midst of battle, Alexander was placed before an elephant belonging to the Persian army. His life was at risk and his fate was death. But his dog, Peritas, seeing his master in danger, set out to defend Alexander, who managed to escape. In the end, the dog did not resist, giving his life for his owner.
This led to a turnaround in the battle and the Persian army was defeated. Which allowed for the creation of one of the strongest empires in history, led by Alexander. Here, a new culture emerged, a new way of thinking through the union of peoples.
So, according to legend, without this dog our culture might be completely different.
Obviously, this whole story is a legend, there are no facts that it happened in this way. However, it may serve to verify that the connection between man and the animal’s protective instinct already existed in primordial times. Could it be this defense instinct was acquired by the wolves?
The Earth 15 000 Years Ago: The Origin Of Dog Breeds
By this time, the Earth was already very similar to what we know today, we can consider that it was a world where the struggle for survival in nature was extreme in some situations. The prehistoric wolf is one of the species that already circulated in nature. But its life was not easy, as it had to search for food and flee from larger predators. In addition, humans, who at the time were nomadic hunters, were also one of the wolf’s main threats.
However, over time, humans’ interference with the surrounding species became even more intensive, as he began to develop tools and build structures, allowing agriculture to emerge1. When humans began to grow their own food, nomadism and migration decreased, and humans began to settle in small villages. As individual villages were formed, the dynamism of the species around the villages changed. Mainly because intensive hunting began to develop in the areas around the village. Humans thus came into conflict with species whose habitat had been invaded, one of which was the wolf.
Man’s First Confrontations with the Wolf
It is believed that the first confrontations between the species, man and wolf, were extremely aggressive. With the wolves winning most of the encounters. However, this situation changed over the course of evolution, as man became increasingly agile and developed increasingly complex weapons and defense structures, beginning to establish his dominance. As humans became more and more defensive, the wolf population began to be at risk. Humans began to eliminate the dominant, more aggressive wolves that caused the greatest danger to villages, keeping only the wolves that tolerated their presence. As a result, wolf populations became weaker, losing most of the dominant males and pack leaders.
How do wolves respond to human action?
With the elimination of the most aggressive wolves, the packs began to suffer significant hierarchical, food and social impacts. Tendentiously, the remaining wolves, the less aggressive ones, began to approach the villages. Which is seen by many scientists as an attempt to establish a “treaty” with humans, which turns out to be an adaptation to combat the threat of man.
At an early stage, wolves approaching villages showed fear, something that is instinctive to the species. It is in their nature and is a characteristic that prevails to this day. Fear in these animals comes from extremely high levels of stress hormones. Which make the animal associate the situation as dangerous. However, according to some researchers, some wolves may have undergone certain mutations. Which allowed the stress hormones to be reduced and, as a result, some wolves began to be less afraid of humans and to approach them more firmly2. This evolutionary adaptation is seen by scientists as a key point in establishing the relationship between wolves and humans.
Thus, due to this condition and the fact that they were attracted by the sounds and scraps of food left by humans, wolves, being curious animals, began to settle on the outskirts of villages. And, as they were not aggressive, man did not proceed to eliminate them. Over time, humans began to integrate wolves into their villages, establishing contact and domesticating them.
The Establishment Of Packs
In nature, wolf populations are established in social hierarchies. Where the main objective is the survival of the entire pack. They correspond to extremely intensive populations, where the collective is above the individual, which is fundamental, for example, in facing stronger predators. As the wolves began to get closer and closer to man, they could change this establishment and vision. But that’s not what happened: in adaptive terms, the wolves saw the closeness to humans in the same way, and didn’t mind sharing space3.
Women’s role in integrating the Wolf into the population
After humans settled into small populations, men continued their hunting activities, while women had other tasks and stayed in the villages. The fact that women stayed close to the villages allowed them to have greater contact with wolves, especially wolf cubs. Many women even ended up breastfeeding the wolf cubs, an extremely common act among mammals in the animal world.
The fact that this is an interaction with wolf cubs is a key determining factor. Firstly, the fact that they are cubs allows them to develop feelings of affection and protection towards these beings. Which is considered an evolutionary strategy in nature so that adults pay more attention to the younger ones, the cubs. Since they are the ones who will ensure the maintenance of the species. It can be seen that this type of interaction is mostly established between parents and offspring of the same species, but it can also be established between extremely different creatures, such as between humans and wolf.
Fig. 2- Wolf cub (Source: iStock)
Mutualism
As we have seen, at an early stage in the establishment of human villages, aggressive wolves were eliminated while less aggressive wolves were kept and later adopted by the tribe. In addition to all the evolutionary adaptations already verified. Following evolutionary thinking, if the more aggressive wolves were eliminated and only the more docile ones were kept, over time we would only have more docile wolves. Since the new generations of wolves would already have interaction with humans and possess some of the adaptive characteristics of their ancestors, looking at humans as family. In this respect, the partnership that has developed between wolves and humans over the course of evolution is seen as a condition of Mutualism. In which both species benefit to some extent from the interaction established.
The Role Of The Wolf
At an early stage in this interaction between humans and wolf, these animals were used as defense tools. Being taught to protect human populations, for example, against other animals. Later, when they were trained by man, they began to help during hunting activities, search for food and capture prey. But what is considered a major milestone in this interaction was the training of wolves by man to protect his flock. This is a very important point in this evolutionary relationship, as wolves began to develop an instinct to protect themselves from individuals that their ancestors would immediately attack. Which demonstrates man’s appreciation of these beings.
Evidence
We have plenty of evidence that the interaction between humans and the wolf/dog is not recent, and there is archaeological evidence of such interaction.
There is a lot of evidence that points to this relationship going back a long way. One piece of evidence is the fact that the diet of the wolf-dog was present at the end of the Pleistocene (2.58 million years ago to around 12,000 years ago). We have isotopic and paleontological evidence that wolves had an exclusively terrestrial diet, with one or two specific exceptions. However, from this period onwards there is isotopic and paleontological evidence of a diet of marine animals. Humans therefore already fed these animals during the Ice Age. Which demonstrates the strong mutualistic relationship between the two species4.
Changes from the prehistoric wolf to the dog – What are the main changes?
As we have seen, over thousands of years, prehistoric wolves underwent an intensive evolutionary process, aided by humans in a process of domestication. Which resulted in various changes, behavioral, physiological and social, that gave rise to domestic dogs. We can consider that the main characteristics of the prehistoric wolf consisted of: Vision adapted to the night, with specialized eyes that allow them to dominate areas of low light.
Adaptation to different soils, they use their long claws to move around in different environments.
Layer of hair between the toes allows them to move around in the snow.
Extremely keen sense of smell, around 100 times greater than humans’. Extremely strong bite wolves have a bite far superior to that of a domestic dog, capable of piercing flesh with ease5.
However, the wolves ended up changing, as they were domesticated,. They gained a new lifestyle, a new habitat and a new diet, which triggered changes in behavior. For example, most of today’s dogs do not hunt naturally and instinctively, needing to be trained for this practice. Something that was not seen in the prehistoric wolf. In physical and structural terms, we can see that many dog breeds have drooping ears, unlike wolves who always had their ears up as a form of alert. So this change may reflect a decrease in the need for permanent alertness. Their current environment, your house, doesn’t need a permanent alert mode.
The Wolf-Dog: The Most Bizarre Dog Breed
Wolf-dogs are individuals that are the result of a cross between the domestic dog (Canis lupus familiaris) and the wolf (Canis lupus). Despite the cross between two different subspecies, the majority of the DNA in these individuals undoubtedly belongs to the wolf.
Precisely because of this genetic predominance, many of the Wolf-dog’s behaviors are wild and very similar to those of wolves. In this respect, this hybrid species has intensive territorial behaviors implemented. Which makes them challenging as pets, often leading to their abandonment.
In addition, despite being a wolf-dog, they react similarly to wolves in terms of smells and sounds. However, compared to the prehistoric wolf, these beings have a lower hormonal stress load. This is derived from certain evolutionary mutations. Which makes them more receptive to human contact, so we can approach and touch them in most situations.
Fig. 3- The Wolf-Dog. The Result Of a Cross Between a Wolf And a Domestic Dog. (Source: Wikipedia)
Artificial Selection – Why are most of today’s dogs so different from wolves?
It is known that in the past there were different breeds of wolf, each with its own distinctive characteristics, from which the different dog breeds of today emerged. It is important to note that from a certain point in the evolutionary history of these species, humans began to interfere intensively. Starting to make successive crosses between different breeds, according to the characteristics he wanted in his companion animal.
The first breed created by man appeared around 4000 years ago and was extremely similar to the wolf, with a robust size. This practice of cross-breeding and testing animals in order to obtain new species was extremely common during the Roman Empire. Where larger animals were first bred and later lap animals. This practice became common all over the world. Where the main objective was to obtain breeds according to the desired needs. For example, companion, herding and hunting dogs, and even breeds specific from certain countries emerged.
In fact, these breeds are becoming increasingly distant from the wolf, especially in terms of their physical appearance, and there are smaller and smaller breeds.
However, most of their DNA contains genetic information from the wolves, their ancestors. Allowing many species, despite having lost many of the characteristics of the ancestral wolf, to continue to maintain specific instincts. One big example is howling, used by ancestral packs to communicate.6
Fig. 4- The Origin Of The Different Dog Breeds (Source: Evolution Of Dogs)
Conclusion
Undoubtedly, one of the most fascinating examples of human-animal interaction is the one described above. Which began with the domestication of the wolf and led to its transformation into all the dog breeds we know today.
We have seen that this was not an immediate process of transformation, but one that took place over thousands of years. Allowing the appearance and behavior of prehistoric wolves to be shaped. Also shaping human life, creating a bond of partnership between man and wolf that continues to this day. The ideas behind this bond are based on cooperation, protection and affection.
There are a number of studies, which demonstrate this proximity and mutual benefit. Over time, the artificial selection developed by humans allowed specific characteristics to be favored according to his needs. Giving rise, for example, to more docile breeds with extremely specific abilities.
We can conclude that the evolution from wolf to dog is a fascinating example of the combination of natural selection and human influence. This evolutionary journey not only highlights the animal’s adaptive capacity in the face of changed environmental conditions, but also reinforces the role of dogs in human life and where their distinctive traits come from.7
Footnotes
- Morey, D. F. (1994). The early evolution of the domestic dog. American scientist, 82(4), 336-347. ↩︎
- Kotrschal, K. (2023). Wolf–Dog–Human: Companionship Based on Common Social Tools. Animals, 13(17), 2729. ↩︎
- Jouventin, P., Christen, Y., & Dobson, F. S. (2016). Altruism in wolves explains the coevolution of dogs and humans. Ideas in Ecology and Evolution, 9(1). ↩︎
- François Lanoë et al. ,Late Pleistocene onset of mutualistic human/canid (Canis spp.) relationships in subarctic Alaska.Sci.Adv.10,eads1335(2024).DOI:10.1126/sciadv.ads1335 ↩︎
- Coli, A., Prinetto, D., & Giannessi, E. (2023). Wolf and dog: what differences exist?. Anatomia, 2(1), 78-87. ↩︎
- Bergström, A., Stanton, D.W.G., Taron, U.H. et al. Grey wolf genomic history reveals a dual ancestry of dogs. Nature 607, 313–320 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41586-022-04824-9 ↩︎
- Some Information was taken from the Netflix miniseries called “Mundo Mistério” with the help of Brazillian Biologists and Paleontologists ↩︎
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