The "birdsandbats" Guide to Domestic Animals

The gray wolf isn't the origin of them, though. You wouldn't say C evolved from D or B or A.
 
If Canis lupus is defined as all descendants of the last common ancestor of extant wolf lineages (defined in my example as B, C and D), and the domestic dog (defined in my example as A) is *also* a descendant of this last common ancestor then the only way to maintain C. lupus as a monophyletic taxon is to include the domestic dog within this species.

The alternative is to reclassify every single lineage descending from this last common ancestor as a distinct species - this being the model which gives us C. lupus, C. chanco, C. pallipes, C. familiaris etc.
 
Being included within a species and evolving from a species aren't the same thing, though.
 
TinoPup said:
That second link isn't working for me, but thanks. I haven't seen that before. However, the first link doesn't support the idea that dogs originated from gray wolves instead of them both being from a common ancestor. Two relevant quotes:

"Thus regardless of our assumptions on the identity of the wolf population from which dogs originated, we infer that dogs diverged from the sampled wolf populations at about the same time these wolf populations diverged from each other."

"Another alternative is that the wolf population (or populations) from which dogs originated has gone extinct and the current wolf diversity from each region represents novel younger wolf lineages, as suggested by their recent divergence from each other (Figure 5A). Our inference that wolves have gone through bottlenecks across Eurasia (Figures 3B, 5A) suggests a dynamic period for wolf populations over the last 20,000 years and that extinction of particular lineages is not inconceivable. Indeed, several external lines of evidence provide support for substantial turnover in wolf lineages."

The two other alternatives were both described as "unlikely".
Click to expand...
I think you are confusing wolf populations with wolf species.
 
Hello! What happened with this thread? There are tons of domestic animals still to be covered :)
 
Domestic Yak Bos grunniens
Ancestor: Wild Yak Bos mutus
Domestication Date: circa 2500 BCE
Reason for Domestication (original): meat, possibly also fur, leather, milk
Current Use: meat, fur, leather, milk, horns, manure, working, transportation
Location Domesticated: Himalayan region (Tibet and Nepal)

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Photo of a Domestic Yak by @Glutton at Zurich Zoo, Switzerland

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Photo of a Wild Yak taxidermy specimen by @Sarus Crane at Academy of Natural Sciences, United States
 
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