Santiago Atienza
A counterargument to countershading
www.kelpiegallery.com
Prof. Mumblebard claims: “Although various wild members of the dog family could theoretically have been selectively bred to produce the domestic dog, the fact is that only the wolf, pictured here, has been ancestral to this domestication. This has been proven genetically.”
Robin and the Honey Badger respond: “Regardless of genetic analyses – which are more subjective than usually realised – there are logical reasons to doubt that the wolf has been the main, let alone the only, ancestor of the domestic dog. For example, many breeds have a symmetrical, consistent, wild-type colouration unrecorded in any form of the wolf, which could not possibly have been created by artificial selection. This indicates that the real ancestor of most breeds of the domestic dog was a jackal-like species, probably now extinct, which had black-and-tan colouration.”
Please join us here at the Bio-edge with your own comments. In the discussion below we encourage links to any evidence supporting either Prof. Mumblebard or Robin and the Honey Badger. Illustrations are welcome but please cite all sources or we may be forced under copyright to delete your comment.