The evolution has given our dogs sparkling eyes, so now they 'spoil' us!

Have you ever wondered why dogs when they beg their eyes are so glittery? Or when they're sad, just by looking into their eyes can we know?

A study showed that during the domestication of dogs from 15,000 years ago, they evolved themselves to develop a new ability to communicate that is communication through the eyes .

Bridget Waller, an evolutionary psychologist at the University of Portsmouth, said: "Movement of the eye muscles makes the dog's eyes look bigger, similar to a child's eyes. It can also mimic the expression. of human eyes when sad. "

Specifically, dogs develop some facial muscles to raise their eyebrows, making their eyes look bigger and sometimes sparkling like the eyes of children or creating. Giving the same gaze that humans make when they are sad.

Kaminski said: "We studied dog and wolf behavior when exposed to human environment, for two minutes, the dog's inner eyebrows were raised higher than wolves and their facial muscles were also working with intensity. higher".

The researchers, after having undergone surgery on six dogs of different breeds, were raised by humans and died of old age, found that all six dogs had a group of facial muscles. called the levator anguli oculi medialis , this muscle group allows them to control their eyebrows.

Duquesne - University anatomist Anne Burrows said: "The movement of the dog's eyebrows is controlled by the muscle and this muscle does not exist in their closest cousin, the wolves."

At the same time, the team also underwent body anatomy of four wild wolves to find that wolves do not exist in this group.

The muscle around the dog's eye allows them to control their eyebrows, while wolves do not.

Co-author of the study, behavioral psychologist Juliane Kaminski at the University of Portsmouth, UK, said a slight change in the facial muscles around the eyes allows the eyes of dogs to look larger, which will pique. the feeling of wanting to nurture from human

At the same time, she said that if it was not raised by humans, the dog's eyebrows could never move, because in the process of communication with the dog, their eyebrows have no effect. .

Kaminski in previous studies has shown that dogs can understand human gestures even just through the eyes much better than other animals.

Only by evolving a nearly unimportant muscle group did the domestic dogs have been able to communicate and show facial expressions to humans.

The team said muscle anatomy showed that this muscle group usually grows very slowly, so this appears to be a huge change in the tens of thousands of years of dog evolution.

They believe the reason is the positive effect of dog facial expressions when interacting with humans.

When your dog wants something, especially when begging, it will show a pitiful expression through its eyes.

The discovery that muscle groups increase the ability of dogs to express themselves through their eyes is not an intentional result of the breeding or selection process of domestication.

A study of the domestication of the silver fox has proved that some of its characteristics are self-forming, not because of human intent, such as soft ears, curly tails and spotted fur.

To answer this question, so far no scientist can explain it, this is temporarily called domestication syndrome and it is possible that the production of muscle group on the dog's face is also the product of this syndrome.

• The wolf is domesticated by eating human leftovers
• Living with humans for 15,000 years, the dogs' brains have been transformed by us