Pies: Dogs have twice as many muscles to move their ears as people

Evidence: 59 • authority: 72

The dog (Canis familiaris or Canis lupus familiaris) is a domesticated descendant of wolves. Also called the domestic dog, it was selectively bred during the Late Pleistocene by hunter-gatherers. Dogs and the modern gray wolf share a common ancestor. Dogs were the first species to be domesticated over 14,000 years ago, before the development of agriculture, though genetic studies suggest the domestication process may have begun over 25,000 years ago. Due to their long association with humans, dogs have gained the ability to thrive on a starch-rich diet that would be inadequate for other canids. Dogs have been bred for specific behaviors, sensory abilities, and physical traits. Dog breeds va…

Evidence: 49 • authority: 80

Evidence: 49 • authority: 92

Evidence: 49 • authority: 92

Automated analysis of emotional expressions in dogs based on geometric morphometrics.. Automated analysis of facial expressions is a vibrant field in human affective computing, while research in nonhuman animals is still in its early stages. Compared to labour-intensive manual coding, automation can provide a more reliable and objective alternative, eliminating subjectivity and bias. However, using automated approaches of facial analysis in nonhuman animals "in the wild", i.e. outside of controlled laboratory conditions, is a challenge given the nature of noisy datasets. Here we present the first study using a fully automated analysis of facial landmarks associated with different emotional…

Evidence: — • authority: 38