• Email Us: [email protected]
  • Contact Us: +1 718 874 1545
  • Skip to main content
  • Skip to primary sidebar

Medical Market Report

  • Home
  • All Reports
  • About Us
  • Contact Us

Puppy Dog Eyes Are Not Exclusive To Pets, African Wild Dogs Make Them Too

May 22, 2024 by Deborah Bloomfield

Any dog owner will know that when their four legged friend looks up at them with big puppy dog eyes it’s pretty impossible to resist. Research from 2019 suggested that dogs evolved more complex facial muscles compared to wolves and other wild canid species so they could mimic the expression of their humans to encourage people to look after them. Now, new research seeks to debunk that theory by looking at the facial muscles of African wild dogs.

African wild dogs (Lycaon pictus) are a highly social species that live in wild packs of around 10 individuals, though some groups can number as high as 40. The pack works together to cover large distances and bring down prey. They have high levels of communication within the pack and are considered the most social canid species.

Advertisement

Previous work suggested that enlarged muscles within the faces of domestic dogs facilitated expressive movement of the eyes and eyebrows, including the famous “puppy dog eyes” expression, helping communication between pet and owner. These expressions are facilitated by the muscles levator anguli oculi medialis (LAOM) and retractor anguli oculi lateralis (RAOL), which the previous authors suggested evolved for the purpose of better human-pet communication. This new study examines these muscles in African wild dogs.

By looking closely at the musculature in an adult 12-year-old male African wild dog, which had been medically euthanized, the team compared the wild dog facial muscles to that of domestic dogs. The results show that the LAOM and RAOL lengths are within the ranges for Collies, Dachshunds, German Shepherds, and Jack Russell Terrier domestic dog breeds.

The team concluded that LAOM and RAOL muscles are not only enlarged in domestic dogs, but are developed in a similar way in African wild dogs.

Their study does not distract from the idea that specialized facial muscles could have developed as a way for pets to better communicate with their owners. Instead it suggests that other highly social dog species, like the African wild dog, could also have highly developed facial muscles to facilitate a broad range of communication with the other animals within their pack.

Advertisement

Interestingly, the 2019 study found only vestigal remains of LAOM and RAOL in gray wolves (Canis lupus). Gray wolves are known to communicate with one another through touch and scent, suggesting that these methods may be more important in wolf communication than facial expressions.

The paper is published in The Anatomical Record.

Deborah Bloomfield
Deborah Bloomfield

Related posts:

  1. Biden nominee for key China export post expects Huawei to remain blacklisted
  2. New Images From Inside Fukushima Nuclear Plant Are Causing Big Worries
  3. 100-Year Floods May Be Looming If We Don’t Change Our Ways
  4. Disk Called “Dracula’s Chivito” Has The Largest Collection Of Planet-Making Materials Ever Found

Source Link: Puppy Dog Eyes Are Not Exclusive To Pets, African Wild Dogs Make Them Too

Filed Under: News

Primary Sidebar

  • Martian Mudstone Has Features That Might Be Biosignatures, New Brain Implant Can Decode Your Internal Monologue, And Much More This Week
  • Crocodiles Weren’t All Blood-Thirsty Killers, Some Evolved To Be Plant-Eating Vegetarians
  • Stratospheric Warming Event May Be Unfolding In The Southern Polar Vortex, Shaking Up Global Weather Systems
  • 15 Years Ago, Bees In Brooklyn Appeared Red After Snacking Where They Shouldn’t
  • Carnian Pluvial Event: It Rained For 2 Million Years — And It Changed Planet Earth Forever
  • There’s Volcanic Unrest At The Campi Flegrei Caldera – Here’s What We Know
  • The “Rumpelstiltskin Effect”: When Just Getting A Diagnosis Is Enough To Start The Healing
  • In 1962, A Boy Found A Radioactive Capsule And Brought It Inside His House — With Tragic Results
  • This Cute Creature Has One Of The Largest Genomes Of Any Mammal, With 114 Chromosomes
  • Little Air And Dramatic Evolutionary Changes Await Future Humans On Mars
  • “Black Hole Stars” Might Solve Unexplained JWST Discovery
  • Pretty In Purple: Why Do Some Otters Have Purple Teeth And Bones? It’s All Down To Their Spiky Diets
  • The World’s Largest Carnivoran Is A 3,600-Kilogram Giant That Weighs More Than Your Car
  • Devastating “Rogue Waves” Finally Have An Explanation
  • Meet The “Masked Seducer”, A Unique Bat With A Never-Before-Seen Courtship Display
  • Alaska’s Salmon River Is Turning Orange – And It’s A Stark Warning
  • Meet The Heaviest Jelly In The Seas, Weighing Over Twice As Much As A Grand Piano
  • For The First Time, We’ve Found Evidence Climate Change Is Attracting Invasive Species To Canadian Arctic
  • What Are Microfiber Cloths, And How Do They Clean So Well?
  • Stowaway Rat That Hopped On A Flight From Miami Was A “Wake-Up Call” For Global Health
  • Business
  • Health
  • News
  • Science
  • Technology
  • +1 718 874 1545
  • +91 78878 22626
  • [email protected]
Office Address
Prudour Pvt. Ltd. 420 Lexington Avenue Suite 300 New York City, NY 10170.

Powered by Prudour Network

Copyrights © 2025 · Medical Market Report. All Rights Reserved.

Go to mobile version