Naturalist Perspectives Challenge: Genetics in the Landscape

Date: 4/24/2017
Time: 4:53 PM
Weather: Beautiful. Sunny. 61℉

This is a classic looking English Cocker Spaniel. I did not use a specific book, but I sent the picture to my mom, who knows a lot about dog breeds. She told me what she thought it was, then I confirmed by doing a google image search. Since I am generally not good at identifying plants and specific animals, I figured this dog that I befriended on the way back from John F. Kennedy Park would be a good way to make sure I got it right and could find the information.
According to wikipedia, dogs have 78 chromosomes (39 pairs). They are diploids, just like humans.
There are a few different color patterns that the ECSCA identifies, including solid black, liver (which is like brown), red, and golden. There is also the possibility of a dog being 'open marked', which is when they have large patches of color, but between the large patches they are pure white. Open marked dogs cannot produce a roan dog, which is where a dog has patches of color that are broken up by white hairs. It sort of makes the dog look mottled.
According to the English Cocker Spaniel Club of America, the coat of the dog I met would be described as having 'ticking'. "The loci is T, ticking. T (ticking) is dominant over (t) lack of ticking. The amount and location of ticking are greatly affected by genes for size, shape and density of the ticking.'" There is some debate about whether or not ticking is caused by the same gene as roaning.

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Biology Spring 2017 - Naturalist Perspectives

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