Ahhh... Spring!

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Doggone Good Cooperation

Who'd a thunk that our ancient alliance with wolves (who we quickly bred into tame puppy dogs) would be related to how our ancient European ancestors (Cro-Magnon man) out-competed the Neanderthals? It's been known for a long time that we humans domesticated wolves tens of thousands of years ago, and also that we outlived our Neanderthals cousins, who disappeared some 40 thousand years ago. But the link between these two events was only recently identified by a researcher at Penn State University. How was this connection realized?

Neanderthals had inhabited Europe some 200,000 years before Cro-Magnon man even entered the scene. Neanderthals were accomplished hunters of large herbivores such as mammoths and elk, but they also had fierce competition from European lions, leopards, hyenas, as well as wolves. It was very challenging and dangerous to bring down a mammoth or bison by spears. Once you managed to kill one, lions and hyenas would harass you and try to steal your prized meat. So Neanderthals may have lasted a long time, but they were not all that dominant—their population stayed modest.

Then about 45 thousand years ago, modern humans entered Europe. Now the Neanderthals had yet one more competitor for the hunt. Humans, however, had an ace up their hairy sleeve: they domesticated the wolf. It was a great example of a complementary relationship—two potential competitors (humans and wolves, both of whom loved to dine on mammoth meat) joined forces to make their partnership far more effective than either one could do alone.

Those early wolf-dogs had the job of tracking and harassing big game until their prey tired, but then they didn't have to close in for the kill—which could become very dangerous when they faced a cornered and aroused adversary. Instead, humans appeared on the scene and dispatched the prey with spears from a safe distance. Having cooperated for the kill, dogs and humans then shared the treasure. Together, they could also successfully fend off other carnivores who might show up. Thus was born the human and hunting-dog team... which proved to be a deadly combination.

In the meantime, the Neanderthals—having been around far longer, but who left no evidence that they ever partnered with wolves—were at a serious disadvantage. Before long, they disappeared—followed a few millennia later by European mammoths, bison, and giant elk. The human-dog team was lethally efficient.

This is just one more example of how species that managed to evolve cooperation have fared better than those who couldn't. Yes, Darwin's insight into the power of survival of the fittest shoes how evolution competitively plays out, but it's not all about the fiercest competitor always becoming triumphant. Strategic alliance have also favored the prospering of species.

Smell My Butt

If you want to smell my butt, go ahead!

Palm Perfume

Everyone knows what dogs do, immediately after they encounter another canine in a non-aggressive manner: they sniff each other's butt. (If it's an aggressive meeting, they growl first and then sniff butts.) Many other animals also smell each other out, although most of them do not directly head for the nether region. Odor is an ancient and effective way of checking out a critter that one meets. Is this an old acquaintance? Will I make friends with this dude? He looks pretty tough, but maybe it's really a sexually receptive “she.”

These are very animal-like behaviors. We humans like to believe that we are different. We don't need to stick our schnoz into each other's private parts to case out the newcomer. We look them in the eye to judge their character. We shake their hand and see how firmly they grip ours, or how long they hold on. Besides, our sense of smell is not all that good anyway.

Well, you can toss that belief into the trash, along with many other myths that humans are special and different—as I've posted numerous times on this blog. As it turns out, recent research in Israel and Germany has shown that people unconsciously sniff their right hand, just after shaking hands with another person. It's an unintentional maneuver, and thus an instinctual one. What researchers discovered—when participants were covertly filmed—was that people frequently brought their right hand near their nose, just prior to shaking hands, and then later held their hand near their nose for even a longer time span, after a hand shake.

But were they really sniffing the palm scent left by the other person, or in an absent-minded way just bringing their hand up towards their face? Like good scientists, the researchers installed nasal catheters up the schnoz of participants and, indeed, verified that they actually sniffed their hands, rather than simply itched their nose or inspected their manicure.

What's more, the chemicals transferred by the handshake were then lab tested. What did they find? Two chemicals: squalene and hexadeconoic acid; the latter is interestingly also known as palmatic acid. Even more fascinating: these chemicals are known to be some of the same ones that dogs look for, in their social butt-smelling rituals. The circle comes round: we are just like dogs.

So the next time you greet someone with a handshake, pay attention to what your right hand does, immediately afterward. Are you responding more to the firmness of their grip or the subtle palm perfume you subsequently whiff? Are you picking up more on the steadiness of their eye contact, or the subtle scent of their hexadeconoic acid deposited on your paw?