Assessing the extent of linkage disequilibrium (LD) in natural populations of a nonmodel species has been difficult due to the lack of available genomic markers. However, with advances in genotyping and genome sequencing, genomic characterization of natural populations has become feasible. Using sequence data and SNP genotypes, we measured LD and modeled the demographic history of wild canid po...

Wolves (Canis lupus) and arctic foxes (Alopex lagopus) are the only canid species found throughout the mainland tundra and arctic islands of North America. Contrasting evolutionary histories, and the contemporary ecology of each species, have combined to produce their divergent population genetic characteristics. Arctic foxes are more variable than wolves, and both island and mainland fox popul...

Over recent decades, diseases have been shown to be important causes of extinctions among wild species. Greater emphasis has been given to diseases transmitted by domestic animals, which have been increasing in numbers in natural areas, along with human populations. This study had the aim of investigating the presence of intestinal helminths in wild canids (maned wolf, Chrysocyon brachyurus, an...

Genetic divergence and gene flow among closely related populations are difficult to measure because mutation rates of most nuclear loci are so low that new mutations have not had sufficient time to appear and become fixed. Microsatellite loci are repeat arrays of simple sequences that have high mutation rates and are abundant in the eukaryotic genome. Large population samples can be screened fo...

All previously obtained wolf (Cants lupus) and dog (Cams familiaris) mitochondñal (mt) DNA sequences fall within an intertwined and shallow clade (the 'wolf-dog' clade). We sequenced mtDNA of recent and historical samples from 45 wolves from throughout lowland peninsular India and 23 wolves from the Himalayas and Tibetan Plateau and compared these sequences with all available wolf and dog seque...

The question of the origins of the dog has been much debated. The dog is descended from the wolf that at the end of the last glaciation (the archaeologically hypothesized period of dog domestication) was one of the most widespread among Holarctic mammals. Scenarios provided by genetic studies range from multiple dog-founding events to a single origin in East Asia. The earliest fossil dogs, date...

The California sea lion (Zalophus californianus) has been a focal point for sensory, communication, cognition, and neurological disease studies in marine mammals. However, as a scientific community, we lack a noninvasive approach to investigate the anatomy and size of brain structures in this species and other free-ranging, live marine mammals. In this article, we provide the first anatomically...