Visit: https://youtu.be/4kEuEh-7CGo for a video of this episode! Café Scientifique with Dr. Adam Boyko, "2015.10.20 Evolution Unleashed-The Making of the Dog." Recorded at the Bryant Lake Bowl on 10-20-15. "Before they domesticated cats, cows, chickens, corn, wheat, rice or anything else, humans domesticated dogs. Or perhaps it’s more accurate to say that dogs domesticated themselves by deciding to hang around humans to gain food and protection. Even in ancient times, some dogs were selected to be herders, hunters, and fighters, and the descendants of some of the breeds are still with us today. But, the majority of the world’s dogs today do not fulfill these specialized roles and instead live as semi-feral scavengers known as “village dogs.” The Adam Boyko Laboratory at Cornell University’s College of Veterinary Medicine is focused on genomic investigation of dogs as a model of genetic disease and evolutionary genetics, to better understand how the forces of natural and artificial selection have shaped the domestic dog genome and the genetic architecture underlying the tremendous diversity we see in dogs today."