1. How do dogs relate to other animals? What do we know about dogs? Animals (not plants) Mammals (fur, live young, milk) Carnivores (eat meat) But what SPECIFIC information separates dogs from other animals like it? Look at the image to the right: What is the most specific label we give the American black bear? Ursus americanus What two taxonomic labels do we use there? Genus, species http://people.emich.edu/jeisenbac/bio110life/110LIFE.html

2. Canis familiaris This is the species name for the common dog. Let’s compare to a human. Which taxonomic labels do we share with dogs? Domain  Eukarya Kingdom  Animilia Phylum  Chordata Class  Mammalia Order  Primate Family  Homindae Genus  Homo Specie  Sapien GenusSpecies What does this say about our biological relationship with dogs? How closely related are we? What are more closely related to biologically? What is the closest relative to dogs?

3. Canis Canis (genus) houses organisms like Wolf (Canis lupus) Coyote (Canis latrans) Jackal (Canis adustus, Canis mesomelas) depending on the species of jackal!

4. Canis lupus familiaris "The domestic dog is an extremely close relative of the gray wolf, differing from it by at most 0.2% of mtDNA sequence.... In comparison, the gray wolf differs from its closest wild relative, the coyote, by about 4% of mitochondrial DNA sequence.“ Wayne, Robert K. (1993). "Molecular evolution of the dog family". Trends in Genetics 9 (6): 218–224 The domestic dog Canis familiaris was reclassified as Canis lupus familiaris, a subspecies of the gray wolf Canis lupus. So what’s so special about a species?

5. Defining a species Can the organisms mate with each other? Is the offspring fertile? + = What does that say about dog breeds? All the same species! mule liger labrador poodlelabradoodle