A Strange Detail About Dogs’ Eyebrows Is Leaving Pet Owners A Bit Uneasy
We’ve all seen dogs do it: staring at us with those big, soppy puppy-dog eyes. It makes most people crumble. But what’s going on here? How did dogs master this look, and why does it affect us so much? Well, a team of researchers set out to try and figure that out.
Up for debate
When it comes to their evolutionary history, dogs remain somewhat mysterious to us. There are plenty of theories out there about how they ended up the way they did, but nobody really knows for sure. For experts concerned with this question, there’s plenty to debate and try to learn about.
Wildly different
Dogs are quite an unusual species, all things considered. There are very few others capable of having members so wildly different in terms of their characteristics, while still being able to breed with one another. Just think about a German shepherd standing beside a pug — the differences speak for themselves.
A different story
Dog evolution is a fascinating subject. Even Charles Darwin gave it a great deal of thought, though it turns out he got some things wrong. He was under the impression dogs were the culmination of many different wild canines mating and passing on their traits. But contemporary science tells us quite a different story.
Back to the Paleocene
According to more recent research, it seems we can trace dogs back to an animal that lived something like 60 million years ago. That would place us in the geological epoch known as the Paleocene, which began after the big extinction event that wiped out the dinosaurs. This dog ancestor was called the Miacis.
