Official Off Topic Discussion Thread #1
- Thread starter Chrisplosion
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For those interested….
Dogs have been a part of human cultures for at least 10,000 years, but we still have much to learn about where these connections emerged and how they were shaped over time. Zhang et al. looked at 73 ancient dog genomes from late Pleistocene-to-early Holocene Eurasia and found clear ancestry evidence that dogs and human populations moved together across time and space, suggesting that dogs were an integral part of human culture at the time. They also found that in some cases, especially where particular working or physical traits were valuable, such as in the Arctic, dogs were likely traded among populations.
Dogs have been a part of human cultures for at least 10,000 years, but we still have much to learn about where these connections emerged and how they were shaped over time. Zhang et al. looked at 73 ancient dog genomes from late Pleistocene-to-early Holocene Eurasia and found clear ancestry evidence that dogs and human populations moved together across time and space, suggesting that dogs were an integral part of human culture at the time. They also found that in some cases, especially where particular working or physical traits were valuable, such as in the Arctic, dogs were likely traded among populations.
Well, the rains are truly here.
I stayed indoors and wired up my new garage door opener.
Here’s a panoramic shot of my garage.
The wiring was easy, as all the wires needed were already installed in the 1980s.
But I fussed with the electric eyes for a while until I figured out why the door kept stopping in the middle.
My door tracks had come slightly loose from the wall, and the moving door would misalign the eyes.
I stayed indoors and wired up my new garage door opener.
Here’s a panoramic shot of my garage.
The wiring was easy, as all the wires needed were already installed in the 1980s.
But I fussed with the electric eyes for a while until I figured out why the door kept stopping in the middle.
My door tracks had come slightly loose from the wall, and the moving door would misalign the eyes.
And for those that don’t have full access to the paper linked to above, this is the readers digest version.
phys.org
Paleogenomics study shows humans and dogs spread across Eurasia together
Dogs have been part of human societies across Eurasia for at least 20,000 years, accompanying us through many social and cultural upheavals.
I moved everything around in the garage today, brought in the hoist, and put the body back on my chassis.
And I took it right back off because I had forgot to remove the old brake fluid reservoir bracket. Also one screw for the battery cable.
Then I put it back on again. Then I took it back off again.
It needs two notches in the firewall to clear the new frame.
I’m gonna go eat dinner and relax a bit before I crawl around cutting notches in the fiberglass, but this body is going on tonight!
And I took it right back off because I had forgot to remove the old brake fluid reservoir bracket. Also one screw for the battery cable.
Then I put it back on again. Then I took it back off again.
It needs two notches in the firewall to clear the new frame.
I’m gonna go eat dinner and relax a bit before I crawl around cutting notches in the fiberglass, but this body is going on tonight!
Congrats! Car restoration is an alien concept to me, but that looks to be the final stages of a project long in the making.
Looks like I'm a day or 2 late to the conversation, but some interesting reads. I'm a dog person myself, but married a cat person. I don't mind cats, just wouldn't take on the effort of keeping one inside if it were up to me. But just as I take on all the work of the fish tank and expect nothing of my wife in it's maintenance or care, she takes on the work of the cat, feeding, litterbox duty, vet visits, etc and as such Im fine with having one inside and will scratch its head a couple times a day. Back to the point of the articles, I find it particularly interesting they mentioned the dampened fear response as a result of the neural crest mutation. We recently experienced just this.Neural crest cells appear to be involved in the process. Another recent article along the same lines, involving raccoons.
City Raccoons Are Evolving to Look More Like Pets
City-dwelling raccoons seem to be evolving a shorter snout—a telltale feature of our pets and other domesticated animalswww.scientificamerican.com
Our previous feline roommates pass 2 years ago and 1 year ago respectively, and we were catless for a period. Where we live in a small subdivision a mile outside a small city, our backyard ends in a treeline that has farmland beyond. There are several small farms and many fields nearby. We have half a dozen different cat visitors from time to time, along with the occasional raccoon, deer, possum etc. and my wife sometimes puts some food out back for the cats. It's hard to tell if they are strays, abandoned pets, or farm cats that include us in their territory, but I wouldn't exactly call them feral. We've talked about another indoor cat for a bit and the kids have been asking, and low and behold one of these backyard cats began visiting every day, sleeping on our patio and even approaching us when we are outside. Over the course of a few weeks we began petting her, interacting more and more, and she became a regular presence. She was so tame she let my wife pick her up, put her in a cat carrier, and drive her to the vet, where she got vaccines, ear drops, flea meds, etc and now lives inside with us. She also had no collar/tag, no chip, or any indication she was someones pet, and my wife posted her picture on a found cats page on our local community FB group. The vet estimated she's only a couple years old, not sure how they do this without counting the rings inside, but she showed signs of having kittens in the past few months. She's scheduled for a spay in a couple weeks, and has taken to indoor living quite quickly.
There also has been a very young cat coming around outside that we think is one of her kittens. So of course it was only a few days later the wife and kids decided we should save her kitten too. The kitten would not approach us and was very skittish to any movement. We set a live trap, caught it and took it to the vet. It would not be handled, actually climbed the walls of the little exam room, and was labeled as too feral to examine. The kitten has grown into a half cat now and still lives outside but visits nearly everyday. We put out a little food for it, and have a blanket on the patio chair for it to sleep on, but will likely never trust us enough nor will I trust it enough to be an inside pet.
I realize true domestication and evolutionary changes to skeletal structure etc take generations, and this is only 1 small experience, but it's a great example of how the effects of those changes can result in very different outcomes. It not only takes some level of trust, or lack of fear on our side, but on the animals side as well.
