This is the first in a series of post of mine about Evolution that I started posting in January of 2010. I'll be reposting the series over the next two months, culminating in a brand new post for the set in Jan 2012! I'm excited. You know you're excited. Enjoy!
Man's best friend is much more than a household companion - for centuries, artificial selection in dogs has made them prime examples of the possibilities of evolution. A century and a half ago, Charles Darwin recognized how the incredibly diverse dogs supported his revolutionary theory in his famous book On The Origin Of Species. At the time, he believed that dogs varied so much that they must have been domesticated from multiple canine species. Even still, he speculated that:
if... it could be shown that the greyhound, bloodhound, terrier, spaniel and bull-dog, which we all know propagate their kind truly, ...
