A new study published in Science Advances analyzed three-dimensional skull shapes from 117 canids, including 40 domestic dog breeds and 18 wild species like wolves and foxes. The surprising finding?

Within the last year, because the skull still had a strong scent to it.” And the crime solving canines were not done. On Dec. 12, “the same dog was found in the possession of a long bone in ...

The results showed that domesticated dog breeds exhibit exceptional diversity in their skull shapes, but have high overlap among the parts of the skulls that correspond with functional tasks.

The prevailing belief has been that selective breeding enhances a dog’s ability to perform specific tasks, but new research challenges this assumption, at least when it comes to skills associated with ...