George ILIEV
The dominant theory about the domestication of dogs has so far postulated that humans caught wolf pups to use for hunting and gradually tamed them into dogs through selective breeding. However, new DNA research at the University of Uppsala published in Nature shows that it was probably the wolves who volunteered for domestication by developing mutations that allowed them to digest starchy foods - found in the rubbish tips of early agricultural human settlements.
The wolf ancestors of modern dogs must have stumbled upon this unoccupied ecological niche - just like companies find lucrative underexploited niches in a free market and adapt to exploit them accordingly. This possibly disproves the earlier hypothesis that the domestication of dogs came about as a result of the "central planning" of humans, intervening by capturing and taming wolf pups.
A somewhat similar starch-focused digestive mechanism may have been at play in the domestication of the cat. Cats have not developed special mutations to break down starch but instead have longer digestive tracts compared with their wild ancestors. This allows them to better absorb nutrients from starchy leftovers.
(Photo: Patches & Lamb, domestic dogs, Atlanta, 2010)
