October 13, 2002 - Natural History Museum of Los Angeles County
Here's a
series of facts we learned over the weekend.
1.
All dogs, wild and domestic, belong to one family - Canidae.
2. One species of wild dog, the gray wolf, gave rise
to all domestic dogs.
3. All of the nearly 400 domestic dog breeds belong to
a single species Canis familiarus.
We found
that to be
a fairly daunting notion, and a pretty powerful way to open
the first room of the first exhibit of Dogs:
Wolf, Myth, Hero & Friend which premiered today
at the Natural History Museum and runs through January 5, 2003.
Too bad the rest of this show doesn't hold up to that impressive
start.
It
is a traveling show sponsored by Pedigree dog food, and will be
heading next to San Diego -- then on to cities like Seattle, Chicago,
D.C., and Philadelphia among others. Because it's temporary, the
whole thing has a certain, "let's roll this thing out of
here when we're done" feel to it. Fair enough. It might be
the reason that it is not very big. Think more Chihuahua than
German Shepard and you'll be fine.
