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All the pups we love—from chihuahuas to great danes—are descendants of the mighty gray wolf. But how did we end up with so many breeds? The story that’s often told is that dog diversity really took off with the Victorians in the 1800s, but new research is unleashing a different tale. Host Flora Lichtman talks with bioarchaeologist Carly Ameen about the diversification of dogs.
Plus, a long-running experiment to tame silver foxes is cluing us into how domestication happens. Canine researcher Erin Hecht gives us a glimpse into the experiment and what it tells us about domesticated brains.
Further Reading
- The Daring Russian Geneticist Whose Experiments on Silver Foxes Explained Domestication Has Died, via Scientific American
- Our dogs’ diversity can be traced back to the Stone Age, via BBC News
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Segment Guests
Carly Ameen
Dr. Carly Ameen is bioarcheologist and lecturer at the University of Exeter in the U.K.
Erin Hecht
Dr. Erin Hecht is an evolutionary biologist and canine researcher at Harvard University in Cambridge, Massachusetts.
Segment Transcript
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Meet the Producers and Host
About Rasha Aridi
Rasha Aridi is a producer for Science Friday and the inaugural Outrider/Burroughs Wellcome Fund Fellow. She loves stories about weird critters, science adventures, and the intersection of science and history.
About Flora Lichtman
Flora Lichtman is a host of Science Friday. In a previous life, she lived on a research ship where apertivi were served on the top deck, hoisted there via pulley by the ship’s chef.