What will dogs of the future look like? Geneticists predict the future of dogs with the help of artificial intelligence.
We often think about the future of the planet, of humans, of wild species… But have the visionaries that we are thought about the future of our dogs? Have you ever imagined what our four-legged companions might look like thousands of years from now? Geneticists from Basepaws, an American company specializing in genetic testing for pets, decided to investigate the question.
Drawing on their own genetic research, they imagined how modern races might evolve over a few tens of thousands of years. The geneticists also called on a veterinarian, named Henry Ward, who developed projections based on two scenarios linked to climate change: a global warming of our planet or, conversely, the start of an ice age. They finally asked artificial intelligence to illustrate canine evolution in images. Images then published on the specialized site Interesting Engineering.
In the first of these two scenarios, global climate change will affect the way people can feed and care for dogs. According to veterinarian Henry Ward, increasing Earth temperatures will lead to a shortage of resources, therefore less food and therefore loss of weight in our pets. This could go as far as reducing their body, according to the researchers. Small organisms, which require less food and energy than large animals, are therefore better equipped to cool themselves in high temperatures.
It is also suggested by Henry Ward that dogs could develop darker skin tones and lose their coats if global warming occurs. In this scenario, animals would adopt a nocturnal lifestyle and would therefore acquire larger ears, for example, to hunt more easily in the dark.
In the second scenario envisaged by this team of researchers, if the climate tends towards a global and sudden cooling, dogs would inevitably develop thicker and voluminous fur to keep them warm. It is difficult for researchers to predict, in this case, a change in the size of the animals, but they should accumulate more fat, which constitutes an energy reserve for them.
Dogs could also return to a more primary morphology, similar to that of their ancestors, wolves for example. In the most extreme scenario of Earth cooling, they could even compete with humans for hunting! Can you imagine your faithful companion running after you to kill you? Difficult.
Especially since there is nothing to confirm that pets will always be by our side in all these years. As for knowing how they will actually evolve, with or without hair, bigger or smaller… artificial intelligence can be wrong!