Present-day dogs defy the domestication syndrome
Tuesday, April 21, 2020 - 12:00
in Psychology & Sociology
Across a wide range of domesticated animals the same morphological, physiological and behavioural traits appear to change together in a non-random way. For instance, many domesticated animals have white patterns in their coat and floppy ears, and most are more docile and tame than their wild ancestors. This phenomenon where traits change together in domesticated species, compared to their wild ancestors, is known as the domestication syndrome. However, recently a scientific discussion of the mechanism and even the existence of this syndrome has caught on.