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For the first time, scientists have shown that selective breeding of domestic dogs is not only dramatically changing the way animals look but is also driving major changes in the canine brain.
The brains of many short-snouted dog breeds have rotated forward as much as 15 degrees, while the brain region controlling smell has fundamentally relocated, researchers from the University of New South Wales and University of Sydney have found.
The large variations in dog skull size and shape follow more than 12,000 years of breeding for functional and aesthetic traits.
The discovery of such dramatic reorganisation of the canine brain raises important questions about impacts on dog behavior.
The research is published this month in the Public Library of Sciences journal PLoS ONE.
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