OT I know but Neanderthals are not Homo Sapiens ancestors, it is thought that they share a common ancestor but a different branch ( another branch being apes) and existed at the same time. They seem to have crossbred at some point and most Northern Europeans will have genetic links to them.

Sorry but I find it very interesting

lol me too!

not really OT tis relevant as far as i see

I also believe though would have to Google it to check, that their DNA is not Identical but 99 percent or something

Have a copy somewhere....just not sure where!!

From what I can gather - and I am not a scientist.

With selective breeding - major behavioural changes can be seen over as little as 9 generations (Sliver Fox experiment) - now - from my understanding, this experiment was also nature nurture based (to a point)...showing that aggressive behaviour can be genetic, when the Aggressive embryos, when implanted in a non aggressive dam, still produced aggressive Kits?

135,000 years is going to be a hell of a lot more than 9 generations - now - granted not all of that will have been specific breeding - but a hell of a lot of it will have been.

Do you honestly think that this kind of selective breeding (ie - away from wild instincts) over this length of time is not going to have a MAJOR impact on the instinctive behaviours (and that is without looking at environmental factors).
Taking dog behaviour away from Wolf behaviour in a Massive way?

The fox experiment was FASCINATING!

Have found it, and am going to reread it

Just for interest, this is a recent article on the genetics of the domestic dog, also referring to the work of Robert Wayne et al.

http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases...0317144640.htm

Interesting thread from the science viewpoint but I must admit to being on the fence on the nature/nurture debate.

Despite all the science behind the common genetic background of wolves/dogs, there's no getting away from the fact that behaviourally & morphologically, dogs & wolves (& other wild canids) are very different. The fact that the mitochondrial DNA is not very different, whilst interesting, has limited relevance to the way we treat & manage our relationships with today's dogs living in the modern world.

IMO it would be like raising a baby gorilla as a human baby but then being surprised that it did not behave in the same way that a human baby does! I understand that similar experiments have been carried out on domestic dog pups & wolf cubs ~ both raised the same way, but adolescent & adult behaviours diverging significantly as they grow up. Both species have a very similar genetic makeup, but both have very different levels of developments & behaviours. And the effect this has on the way humans interact with, manage & treat domestic dogs is huge ~ we certainly can't live with wild canids in the same way that we can share our lives with domestic dogs.

It is useful to know the evolutionary ancestry of domestic animals & the behaviours of their wild ancestors give clues as to the origins of certain behaviours, but don't necessarily account for the reasons for those similar behaviours in the domesticated animal in today's world.

you don't need to, I can tell you. It is 99.8% - the .8% is behavioural difference between wolf and dog. The Smithsonian Institute reclassified Canis Familiaris (Dog) to Canis LUPUS familiaris - the familiaris being acknowledgement that dogs are domesticated wolves.