My understanding is that dogs were domesticated from a now-extinct species that was the common ancestor of dogs and gray wolves, but not descended from them.

I read about this just recently. It was more of an evolutionary cousin thing; dogs and wolves diverged like a million years ago, well before we were in the picture. The ones humans ran into on our way out of Africa would have been from a different subspecies, and potentially were prone to domestication from the start, while the one that became modern wolves were confined to (now submerged) Beringia until the end of the ice age.

That's not a very good headline. Of course they did it for food, the model was about whether they could have domesticated themselves fast enough without being forced.

I'll have to actually look into the research; I have trouble imagining how one would model that in silico.

I’m a bitch for chips.

I won't claim it's a good show, but I love Krapopolis!

And it's Richard Ayoade, for reference.

Isn't that like exactly how domestication works

For predators generally yes, but for prey not necessarily

pretty sure if you stop providing grass for the horses, they'd leave too (or at least try to)

I'm not sure that's accurate. They'd leave if they have no access to grass, but you don't have to actively give it to them for them to stay.

yeah but I meant in both cases, they stay for the food

I got that, but I don't think it's true. Humans don't provide them with food (except during winter, but that's also more recent), we prevent escape. Otherwise why are pens necessary? We'd just pile up food, and the animals would keep coming back.

ok you might be right about that

Also petting them, we just want to pet everything especially if it's somewhat fluffy and soft, even if that's really not a good idea (and i don't mean "haha i wanna pet the crocodile" i mean petting parrots, which is a sex thing for them and makes them VERY confused and frustratedly horny)