Survival Of The...Cutest? Why Domestic Dogs Prove Evolution

According to a new study in the American Naturalist that compared the skull shapes of domestic dogs with those of different species across the order Carnivora, domestic dogs have followed their own evolutionary path, twisting Darwin's directive "survival of the fittest" to their own needs -- and have proved him right in the process. The study found that the skull shapes of domestic dogs varied as much as those of the whole order. It also showed that the extremes of diversity were farther apart in domestic dogs than in the rest of the order. This means, for instance, that a Collie has a skull shape that is more different from that of a Pekingese than the skull shape of the cat is from that of a walrus. read more

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