Whether dogs were domesticated during the Pleistocene, when humans were hunter-gatherers, or during the Neolithic, when humans began to form permanent settlements and engage in agriculture, remains controversial. Recently discovered Paleolithic fossil skulls, Goyet dated 31,680 +/- 250 YBP and Eliseevichi MAE 447/5298 dated 13,905 +/- 55 YBP, were previously identified as dogs. However, new gen...

A long-standing hypothesis in adaptive radiation theory is that ecological opportunity constrains rates of phenotypic evolution, generating a burst of morphological disparity early in clade history. Empirical support for the early burst model is rare in comparative data, however. One possible reason for this lack of support is that most phylogenetic tests have focused on extant clades, neglecti...

Canids can be difficult to detect and their populations difficult to monitor. We tested whether hair samples could be collected from coyotes (Canis latrans) in Texas, USA and gray wolves (C. lupus) in Montana, USA using lure to elicit rubbing behavior at both man-made and natural collection devices. We used mitochondrial and nuclear DNA to determine whether collected hair samples were from coyo...

BACKGROUND The present study was carried out to describe the epidemiological aspects of gastrointestinal helminthic infections of canids in Chaharmahal and Bakhtiari Province, the central western part of Iran. METHODS Forty nine canid species including, dogs, jackals, foxes and wolves were included in this study. The contents of their alimentary canal were inspected in order to isolate and id...

The global threat of neglected tropical diseases (NTDs) constitutes a public health issue in underdeveloped countries. Zoonotic helminthiases are the most common human NTD agents developing countries sub-Saharan Africa, Asia, and Americas, causing burden disease that exceeds more recognized infectious such as malaria tuberculosis. Wild canids well-known mammals act natural reservoirs zoonotic-r...

Echinococcus multilocularis is a zoonotic cestode with a distribution encompassing the northern hemisphere that causes alveolar hydatid disease in people and other aberrant hosts. E. multilocularis is not genetically uniform across its distribution, which may have implications for zoonotic transmission and pathogenicity. Recent findings of a European-type haplotype of E. multilocularis in wildl...