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The emergence and diversification of dog morphology

Evin, Allowen ; Ameen, Carly ; Brassard, Colline ; Dennis, Sophie ; Antipina, Ekaterina E. ; Bonhomme, Vincent ; Boudadi-Maligne, Myriam ; Britton, Kate ; Cano, Francisco Gil and Carden, Ruth F. , et al. (2025) In Science 390(6774). p.741-744
Abstract

Dogs exhibit an exceptional range of morphological diversity as a result of their long-term association with humans. Attempts to identify when dog morphological variation began to expand have been constrained by the limited number of Pleistocene specimens, the fragmentary nature of remains, and difficulties in distinguishing early dogs from wolves on the basis of skeletal morphology. In this study, we used three-dimensional geometric morphometrics to analyze the size and shape of 643 canid crania spanning the past 50,000 years. our analyses show that a distinctive dog morphology first appeared at about 11,000 calibrated years before present, and substantial phenotypic diversity already existed in early Holocene dogs. Thus, this... (More)

Dogs exhibit an exceptional range of morphological diversity as a result of their long-term association with humans. Attempts to identify when dog morphological variation began to expand have been constrained by the limited number of Pleistocene specimens, the fragmentary nature of remains, and difficulties in distinguishing early dogs from wolves on the basis of skeletal morphology. In this study, we used three-dimensional geometric morphometrics to analyze the size and shape of 643 canid crania spanning the past 50,000 years. our analyses show that a distinctive dog morphology first appeared at about 11,000 calibrated years before present, and substantial phenotypic diversity already existed in early Holocene dogs. Thus, this variation emerged many millennia before the intense human-mediated selection shaping modern dog breeds beginning in the 19th century.

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organization
publishing date
type
Contribution to journal
publication status
published
subject
in
Science
volume
390
issue
6774
pages
4 pages
publisher
American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS)
external identifiers
  • pmid:41231999
  • scopus:105022621322
ISSN
0036-8075
DOI
10.1126/science.adt0995
language
English
LU publication?
yes
additional info
Publisher Copyright: Copyright © 2025 the authors, some rights reserved.
id
c3647b07-83e5-44cc-97a8-8686e916ca9f
date added to LUP
2025-12-03 08:43:13
date last changed
2026-05-08 14:34:48
@article{c3647b07-83e5-44cc-97a8-8686e916ca9f,
  abstract     = {{<p>Dogs exhibit an exceptional range of morphological diversity as a result of their long-term association with humans. Attempts to identify when dog morphological variation began to expand have been constrained by the limited number of Pleistocene specimens, the fragmentary nature of remains, and difficulties in distinguishing early dogs from wolves on the basis of skeletal morphology. In this study, we used three-dimensional geometric morphometrics to analyze the size and shape of 643 canid crania spanning the past 50,000 years. our analyses show that a distinctive dog morphology first appeared at about 11,000 calibrated years before present, and substantial phenotypic diversity already existed in early Holocene dogs. Thus, this variation emerged many millennia before the intense human-mediated selection shaping modern dog breeds beginning in the 19th century.</p>}},
  author       = {{Evin, Allowen and Ameen, Carly and Brassard, Colline and Dennis, Sophie and Antipina, Ekaterina E. and Bonhomme, Vincent and Boudadi-Maligne, Myriam and Britton, Kate and Cano, Francisco Gil and Carden, Ruth F. and Claude, Julien and Colominas, Lídia and Curth, Stefan and Fedorov, Sergey Egorovich and Frances, Joan and Kalthoff, Daniela C. and Kitchener, Andrew C. and Knecht, Rick and Kosintsev, Pavel and Linderholm, Anna and Losey, Robert and Merts, Ilia and Merts, Viktor and Mostadius, Maria and Omura, Mark and Onar, Vedat and Outram, Alan K. and Peters, Joris and Rehazek, André and Rosengren, Erika and Sablin, Mikhail and Sciulli, Paul and Seguí, Maria and Tseng, Z. Jack and Usmanova, Emma and Varfolomeev, Victor and Crockford, Susan and Kuzmin, Yaroslav and Frantz, Laurent and Dobney, Keith and Larson, Greger}},
  issn         = {{0036-8075}},
  language     = {{eng}},
  month        = {{11}},
  number       = {{6774}},
  pages        = {{741--744}},
  publisher    = {{American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS)}},
  series       = {{Science}},
  title        = {{The emergence and diversification of dog morphology}},
  url          = {{http://dx.doi.org/10.1126/science.adt0995}},
  doi          = {{10.1126/science.adt0995}},
  volume       = {{390}},
  year         = {{2025}},
}