Once a Wolf: The Science Behind Our Dogs' Astonishing Genetic Evolution

by Bryan Sykes

Overview

From the best-selling author of The Seven Daughters of Eve, an eye-opening work no dog lover or ancestry aficionado should be without.

How did wolves evolve into dogs? When did this happen, and what role did humans play? Oxford geneticist Bryan Sykes used the full array of modern technology to explore the canine genetic journey when our ancestors first learned to hunt together with wolves. In the process, he discovered that only a handful of genes have created the huge range of shapes, sizes, and colors in modern dogs. Providing insight into these adaptive stages in “prose both scientific and poetic” (Booklist), Once a Wolf also focuses attention on how human evolution was enhanced by this most improbable ally. Whether examining our obsession with canine purity or delving into the prehistoric past to answer the most fundamental question of all—Why do we love our dog so much?—this book is “a must read for anybody who has ever wondered about the origins of human’s best friend” (Library Journal).

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781631496615
Publisher:	Liveright Publishing Corporation
Publication date:	04/07/2020
Pages:	304
Sales rank:	1,081,584
Product dimensions:	5.50(w) x 8.30(h) x 0.80(d)

About the Author

Bryan Sykes, professor of human genetics at Oxford University, pioneered the use of DNA in exploring the human past. He is the author of Saxons, Vikings, and Celts and the New York Times bestseller The Seven Daughters of Eve.

Table of Contents

Preface vii

1 Lupa 1

2 Darwin's Dilemma 10

3 I Met a Traveller from an Antique Land 13

4 On the Origin of Wolves 22

5 The Living Fossil 25

6 Let the Bones Speak 31

7 The Cave of Forgotten Dreams 39

8 Hunting with Wolves 51

9 Why Didn't Shaun Ellis Get Eaten by Wolves? 56

10 Friend or Foe? 64

11 A Touch of Evil 70

12 The Basic Framework 76

13 We See the First Dogs 85

14 The Studbook of Dudley Coutts Marjoribanks 94

15 The Emergence of Modern Breeds 100

16 The Dog Genome 110

17 The Genetics of Pedigree Breeds 116

18 The Dance of Life 125

19 At the Heart of the Matter 136

20 In the Lab 162

21 The Scientist Who Came in from the Cold 171

22 The Autumn Muster 177

23 The Girl Who Talks with Dogs 185

24 Born Again: Cloning Your Dog 246

25 Beyond the Reach of Reason 255

Acknowledgements 261

References 263

Picture Credits 273

Index 275

Editorial Reviews

01/28/2019

Sykes (The Seven Daughters of Eve), an Oxford genetics professor, delivers an uneven look at how wolves evolved alongside humans into docile companions and helpers. The book is rich with details about how humans have studied and shaped dog evolution, including profiles of researchers Shaun Ellis and Farley Mowat, who studied dogs’ evolutionary roots by living among wolf packs in the wild; and dog breeding case studies, such as how Victorian naturalist and sportsman Dudley Coutts Marjoribanks engineered the golden retriever to include “all the features required for a modern gun-dog.” Sykes also explores the diverse relationships humans have with dogs, or dog surrogates, ranging from working dogs on a New Zealand wool farm to the companionship between a Scottish academic and his robotic dog. Along with an obvious fluency with genetics, Sykes also has a gift for rendering complex concepts, such as mitochondrial DNA or genetic microsatellites, accessible to lay readers. However, passages outside his specialty, such as a discussion of cave paintings or a selection of interviews with dog owners, can come across as filler. Including moments of fascinating history and insight alongside a few too many discursive moments, Sykes’s survey ends up being less than the sum of its parts. (Mar.)

Publishers Weekly

"In prose both scientific and poetic, geneticist and author (DNA USA, 2012) Sykes, self-described as "not a dog person" but curious about the parallel evolution of dog and human, takes us through the archaeological, paleontological, behavioral, and genetic evidence pinpointing the transformation of wolf to dog. . . Woven throughout are possible answers to why humans are so in love with their dogs, making for a warmly engaging popular-science read."

Nancy Bent

2018-12-09

How did wolves evolve into dogs? Sykes (Genetics/Oxford Univ.; The Nature of the Beast, 2015, etc.) reviews the state of the art on matters canine and lupine.

Past studies of canine evolution have relied on osteological and archaeological evidence, but since 2005, the fully sequenced dog genome has been available, allowing, among other things, for "re-drawing the evolutionary tree of dog breeds constructed with mitochondrial DNA over twenty years previously." Five years later, writes the author, a new family tree was published, with all 64 breeds—even the Chihuahua—pointing back to the wolf. Some of those breeds are "ancient," such as the Basenji and Samoyed; others are quite recent. Making those breeds required domestication, for which Sykes finds no evidence before about 50,000 years ago—still far earlier than previous studies have projected. Like other scholars, the author locates that origin in shared hunting, a process that may have altered humans as much as dogs in "the unstoppable current of natural selection." Scholarly argument persists over whether the original raw materials of the dog were really wolves and not coyotes, jackals, hyenas, and other canids. Sykes charts the development of the Carnivora before settling, persuasively, on the scenario of Paleolithic hunters working in concert with wolves to bring down large game such as bison. The author goes on to examine some of the mutations that subsequently allowed human breeders to select for certain characteristics, whether the ridge of the ridgeback or the pigmentation of the bull terrier (with a passing nod to the heterochromia exhibited by David Bowie's Ziggy Stardust). Melanism, hyperuremia, progressive rod-cone retinal degeneration: The author's discussion can be densely technical at times but never enough to render the text inaccessible to those without a background in genetics and population dynamics. Moreover, he closes by looking outside of nature to find the nurture connected to our love of dogs, that "amazing psychic symbiosis."

Scientifically inclined dog lovers will find this a trove of information and provocation.

Kirkus Reviews