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Q: How did dogs get to be "man's best friend"?

A: Our relationship with wolves goes back to about 20,000 B.C., when herds of large prey roamed the last Ice Age landscape, hunted by both wolves and men, says Deidre Barrett in "Supernormal Stimuli." Wolf packs chased and trapped game faster than humans but had no chance against the largest mammoths, which is where humans came in with their spears and arrows. "Evidence is that humans and wolf packs hunted together from 20,000 B.C. to 15,000 B.C., with humans who liked wolves being more likely to live to reproduce, just as were wolves who liked humans."

By 10,000 B.C., humans were beginning to turn wolves into domestic dogs and to use them to control other animals rather than kill them. The assignment of different tasks led to breeds taking on different traits--retrievers, shepherders, guards and personal pets. Diverse dog breeds accented cuteness, with larger eyes, floppy ears and behaviors such as whining, barking and submissiveness-- neotonous characteristics that wolves generally show as pups but then outgrow. Dogs were given their own species designation of "canis familiarus," though they can still interbreed easily with wolves. "That's from wolf to dog over a span of 12,000 years."

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Today is Wednesday, May 16, the 137th day of 2012. There are 229 days left in the year.

1862 -- 150 years ago: Those children's hoop skirts and a fine lot of knitting cotton have arrived in the stores of our city.

1887 -- 125 years ago: The Rock Island fire department is planning its annual reunion and dancing party at the armory on May 26.

1912 -- 100 years ago: A Belgian monoplane has arrived here for an exhibition on Sunday in Exposition Park, Rock Island.

1937 -- 75 years ago: More than 400 boys are registered for the annual free learn-to-swim-classes at the YMCA according to L. V. Burch, boys work secretary at the Y.

1962 -- 50 years ago: Mrs. Isado I. Katz and her daughter, Miss Judith Katz, Rock Island, will present the program Saturday at the annual luncheon of the Woman's Club of Rock Island, to be held at 12:30 p.m. in Memorial Christian Church parlors. Featured will be dramatic highlights from Broadway plays. The mother-daughter duo have had extensive experience in such presentations and have given programs for varied audiences.

1987 -- 25 years ago: Thirty-one Moline High School student bakers showed up for class Thursday with flour, pie-filling and measuring cups in hand as hopeful entrants in the school's Tenth Annual Pie Baking Contest. The student bakers, mostly from foods and nutrition and independent living classes, sweated over a hot baking oven on an unusually humid morning. The heat didn't dampen the bakers' eagerness to win the blue ribbon for best pie, but it did put a dent in more than one meringue. Eleven boys and 20 girls

entered this year's contest.

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