From Frightened to Friendly: The Evolution of Social Behavior in Dogs WITH KATHRYN LORD, PH.D

Name: From Frightened to Friendly: The Evolution of Social Behavior in Dogs WITH KATHRYN LORD, PH.D
Start: 2026-03-05T19:00:00-05:00
Location: Lexington High School

Schedule

Thu, 05 Mar, 2026 at 07:00 pm

UTC-05:00

Location

Lexington High School | Lexington, MA

Many of us love having dogs in our homes, but have you ever wondered how they evolved from their wolf ancestors and why they’re such great companions? In this hour-long talk, Dr. Lord will share her research on how dogs evolved and how they can form such strong bonds with us. She’ll talk about her ongoing research into the differences between the early development of dogs and wolves. She’ll also discuss how she and her colleagues are looking for the genetic changes that underlie domestication using wolf-dogs in sanctuaries across North America. And she’ll talk about how community science is helping us uncover the secrets of how dogs evolved.
Kathryn Lord is a research specialist in the Karlsson lab at The University of Massachusetts Chan Medical School and The Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard. She received her PhD at the University of Massachusetts Amherst, in Organismic and Evolutionary Biology, with Dr. Raymond Coppinger. She has served as faculty at Hampshire College, Canisius College, and Gettysburg College. Kathryn’s work focuses on members of the genus Canis, primarily dogs and wolves. She is interested in understanding how genes and environment interact to allow for rapid evolution, particularly to human environments and in applying her work to the management of domestic and wild species. Her work has been published in professional journals including Animal Behavior, Behavioral Processes, Ethology, Trends in Ecology and Evolution, and Science.