‘Puppy Dog Eyes’ Are Far More Complex Than Biologists Thought

#quickscience #series

It was long thought that "puppy dog eyes" were just simple emotional displays. However, recent research suggests otherwise: they are intentional attempts to communicate with humans using a specially-evolved inner eyebrow muscle. Dogs were domesticated from grey wolves about 30,000 years ago, and it is unknown exactly why. But a new study thinks the ability to use eyes to communicate with humans developed under "substantial evolutionary pressure."

Every dog tested had this special inner eyebrow muscle except for Siberian huskies, which are more closely related to wolves than other breeds. Wolves do not have the eyebrow muscle capable of making puppy dog eyes either. To this point dogs are the only mammal discovered that uses facial expressions to intentionally communicate with people, other than humans. The researcher behind this study previously discovered that dogs use facial expressions more when people are looking at them, than when they aren't.
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Primary information in this video is based on the study "Evolution of facial muscle anatomy in dogs," published by Juliane Kaminski el al. The paper is here:

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