Dog

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Anatomy

Like most predatory mammals, the dog has powerful muscles, a cardiovascular system that supports both sprinting and endurance, and teeth for catching, holding, and tearing.

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The dog's ancestral skeleton provided the ability to run and leap. Although selective breeding has changed the appearance of many breeds, all dogs retain the basic ingredients from their distant ancestors. Dogs have disconnected shoulder bones (absent the collar bone of the human skeleton) that allow a greater stride length for running and leaping. They walk on four toes, front and back, and have vestigial dewclaws (dog thumbs) on their front and rear legs just like monkeys thumbs, in some cases these claws are missing due to surgery. The rear dewclaws are often removed for some obscure reason though in most civil countries this is illegal and thought of as cruel.

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The dog's ancestor was about the size of a Dingo, and its skeleton took about 10 months to mature. Today's toy breeds have skeletons that mature in only a few months, while giant breeds such as the Mastiffs take 16 to 18 months for the skeleton to mature. Dwarfism has affected the proportions of some breeds' skeleton, as in the Basset Hound.

Related Topics:
Dingo - Toy - Mastiff - Dwarfism - Basset Hound

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