Non fiction RR

                   "Learning to Love Grains, Potatoes was Key to the Evolution of Dogs" is a non-fiction article by David Brown from The Washington Post. This article talks about the evolution of wolfs to dogs. One of the key factors where dogs and wolfs differ, is that dogs can easily digest starches wolfs can't. Scientists say that without this ability, dogs could not be our companions because they would want to eat us. The article also talks about statistics of when bonding of humans and dogs began, and the start of the agricultural era. This has shows the importance of a diet on a species.

                  I think that it's really interesting is that both humans and dogs developed liking  for agriculture around the same time. One example is "'I think it is a striking case of co-evolution,' said Erik Axelsson, a geneticist at Uppsala University. 'The fact that we shared a similar environment in the last 10,000 years caused a similar adaptation'"(Brown 1). This is really interesting. Maybe this is why humans and dogs are so close, because were evolving around the same time. You don't really think about changes that other animals went through during the periods where the humans evolved, and its intriguing to see the link between the two species. I wonder if you investigated the connections with other organisms the evolutions would have similar changes.

               Another point that was really interesting was the different theories of why dogs adapted grains. One of these is "dogs evolved from wolves who found a new food source in refuse on the outskirts of human settlements. Eventually they came to tolerate human contact and were brought into the household to be guards, workers and companions"(Brown 1). I think that this seems like a likely story, but we never can be sure. Thats one of the intellectual aspects of science, it requires a lot of careful thinking through, but a lot of things are based on estimations, math, and hypothesizes. For example another theory is "wolves were captured by hunter-gatherers, who tamed, bred and eventually settled down with them"(Brown 1). This too seems like something that could have happened. I can see from these examples that the writer is not very opinionated, instead he's stating the possibilities, therefor he is no stressing something that might not be true. I think that its important in science with certain things to not mix your opinions with the facts.

                 This article really taught me a lot about how starch played a role in the evolution of dogs, and how that there is no clear proof of how this came to be. This article really has made me interested in how people and animals have co-evolved, this hasn't been something I have really thought about before. I would be really interested into learning more about this, and this article has made me more aware to the roles of simple things like a starch in an animals evolution.

Works Cited

Brown, David. "Learning to Love Grains, Potatoes Was Key to the Evolution of Dogs."The                                  Washington Post. N.p., 23 Jan. 2013. Web. 30 Jan. 2013. <http://www.democraticunderground.com/11617843>.