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African wild dogs with pleading eyes sparks rethink of dog evolution

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“Puppy-dog eyes didn’t just evolve for us, in domestic dogs,” says comparative anatomist Heather Smith. Her team’s work has thrown a 2019 finding1 that the muscles in dogs’ eyebrows evolved to communicate with humans in the doghouse by showing that African wild dogs also have the muscles to make the infamous pleading expression. The study was published on 10 April in The Anatomical Record2.

Now, one of the researchers who described the evolution of puppy-dog eyebrow muscles is considering what the African dog discovery means for canine evolution. “It opens a door to thinking about where dogs come from, and what they are,” says Anne Burrows, a biological anthropologist at the Duquesne University in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, and author of the earlier paper.

Evolution of canine eyebrows

The 2019 study garnered headlines around the world when it found that the two muscles responsible for creating the sad–sweet puppy-dog stare are pronounced in several domestic breeds (Canis familiaris), but almost absent in wolves (Canis lupus).

If the social dynamic between humans and dogs drove eyebrow evolution, Smith wondered whether the highly social African wild dog might also have expressive brows.

African wild dogs (Lycaon pictus) are native to sub-Saharan Africa. Between 1997 and 2012, their numbers dropped by half in some areas. With only 8,000 or so remaining in the wild, studying them is difficult but crucial for conservation efforts.

Smith, who is based at Midwestern University in Glendale, Arizona, and her colleagues dissected a recently deceased African wild dog from Phoenix Zoo. They found that both the levator anguli oculi medalis (LAOM) and the retractor anguli oculi lateralis (RAOL) muscles, credited with creating the puppy-dog expression, were similar in size to those of domestic dog breeds.

“We could see distinct fibres that are very prominent, very robust,” says Smith. Although the researchers only looked at one African wild dog, Smith says it’s unlikely that such a large and well-developed muscle would be present in one animal and not others.

A communication strategy

The team proposes that the gregarious African wild dogs evolved these muscles to communicate with each other. They use a range of vocal cues to organize hunts and share resources, but until now, non-vocal strategies haven’t been studied.

Burrows speculates that more dog species might have muscles for facial expression than the researchers realized when they compared wolves and domestic dogs. “I wonder if these muscles have been around for a really long time and wolves are the ones that lost them.”

Muhammad Spocter, an anatomist at Des Moines University in West Des Moines, Iowa, says the study is exciting, but cautions against making assumptions about wild dog behaviour based on their physical structure. “Just because the anatomy is there, is it being used?” says Spocter. “And how is it being used?”

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How to meet Africa’s grand challenges with African know-how

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This week, science-policy specialists from around the world are gathering in Kigali for the fifth conference of the International Network for Governmental Science Advice (INGSA). It’s the first time that Africa is hosting the meeting, and this year’s event marks ten years since INGSA was founded and began helping to shape the global discourse on evidence-informed policymaking.

There has been much to talk about. The past decade has seen the advent of the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals, which have shown the need for improved evidence-supported processes to address global challenges and the huge societal transformations we have come to realize they require. The world is also seeing a rapid transition to a data-driven ‘fourth industrial revolution’ powered by technologies, such as artificial intelligence, that have the potential to disrupt not just markets, but the foundations of humanity, too.

In Africa and many other parts of the world, impediments to growth and development include poverty and food insecurity, unemployment, gender inequality and inequity, limited opportunities for rural-to-urban migration, and inefficient use of land and other productive resources. Combined with ongoing economic recessions and the all-encompassing urgency of the climate and biodiversity crises, these problems present challenges to infrastructure, institutions and ecosystems worldwide.

But the current circumstances also offer an opportunity for African nations. By capitalizing on its strengths and learning from mistakes made elsewhere, Africa can lead the charge in promoting sustainable innovation. The journey should start in Kigali, with an increased political commitment to embrace evidence, empower young African leaders, foster collaborations within and beyond borders, and adapt to digital innovations that aid systemic change.

Despite — or perhaps because of — its challenges, Africa is already a hub for sustainable innovation. Take the field of food systems, in which I work. Resilient agroforestry and climate-smart agricultural practices, including those using traditional methods such as flood-recession farming, have boosted food security. Business-oriented nutrition models have helped communities to diversify food sources, improve nutrient intake, increase productivity and boost incomes.

African researchers often know what is needed, and how and when implement it. But change can be impeded by over-reliance on innovations designed in other countries, and by a limited capacity to adapt imported science and technologies to local contexts. What we need is ‘supported independence’ of science and innovation in Africa, with the aim of designing innovations that work for us.

A groundbreaking step would be for African researchers worldwide to come together to share insights on how to tackle the continent’s problems. Multinational organizations already active in our countries, such as the Alliance for a Green Revolution in Africa, the Forum for Agricultural Research in Africa and the US-based Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, must support our researchers and our governments to seek and use robust evidence that is developed in context and can target African problems.

An evolution in INGSA’s role will be crucial here. INGSA’s African chapter was, in 2016, the first to be set up, helping to import best practice in science advice to the region. In 2022, the regional INGSA research and training hub, which I lead, was established at the University of Rwanda. The centre now offers opportunities to test how science for transformative innovation, and the public policies that support it, can be developed and applied to the distinctive contexts of African nations. It could increase the region’s capacity for science advice by raising awareness, supporting training and encouraging research on advisory principles, processes and practices.

All too often, a lack of evidence-based planning in African countries has produced a breeding ground for trial-and-error interventions that are difficult to scale up and not considered sufficiently supported by research to attract partnerships from wealthy nations. Changing this shouldn’t be about passively receiving knowledge and technologies. African countries must not just be part of a chorus, but also have leading roles, by creating environments conducive to data gathering and sharing, impactful analyses and promotion of collaborative action.

That should play to Africa’s existing strengths by, for example, incorporating Indigenous knowledge systems that have historically supported the continent’s socio-economic development. African nations should identify and empower advocates of change in sectors, such as agriculture, with extensive Indigenous knowledge, and apply similar lessons to emerging areas, including mining and construction. They should also recognize that, although digital infrastructure is crucial in the contemporary world, its absence need not hinder innovation and experimentation — while recognizing that a policy landscape is needed that aids investment in suitable digital infrastructure and innovation ecosystems.

All these initiatives must be approached with inclusivity in mind, taking advantage of Africa’s diverse culture, its young people and its resilience. Who better to lead the next wave of transformational tech and social innovation than populations that are already primed to ‘leapfrog’ directly into clean, sustainable and equitable developments?

Competing Interests

The author declares no competing interests.

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A fresh start for the African Academy of Sciences

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Lise Korsten and Peggy Oti-Boateng in a meeting

Lise Korsten (left) and Peggy Oti-Boateng are steering the African Academy of Sciences’ new strategy.Credit: AAS Kenya

“We have a renewed mission,” the executive director of the African Academy of Sciences (AAS), Peggy Oti-Boateng, proudly declared at the launch of the academy’s strategic plan on 29 February. “In our previous mission, we were leveraging our resources, but now we want to leverage science, technology and innovation for sustainable development on the continent.” As AAS president Lise Korsten told Nature: “We want to really pitch ourselves as a global academy, representing the voice of African scientists.”

For the AAS, it is an important, welcome and timely step forwards, and hopefully the start of a new chapter in its near 40-year existence.

It comes after a difficult episode in the AAS’s history. The academy, which is based in Nairobi, is a pan-African fellowship society — modelled on many academies around the world. Its founding members included the late Kenyan entomologist Thomas Odhiambo, founding head of the International Centre for Insect Physiology and Ecology, and Sudanese mathematician Mohamed Hassan, formerly president of TWAS, the World Academy of Sciences. Some 30 years after its creation, in 2015, the AAS, the African Union and international funders, including the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation and the UK biomedical charity Wellcome, agreed that the academy would host and manage a research-funding platform on behalf of these funders.

The AAS secretariat grew from a body with 19 staff members in 2014 managing a budget of around US$5 million a year, to one with more than 60 staff, distributing more than $250 million per year in health- and biomedical-research grants. In 2021, following internal tensions at the academy and the suspension of a few senior staff members, the funders withdrew, saying that they had lost confidence in the AAS’s governance systems. Much of this played out in public, putting the academy’s reputation at risk.

In fairness, the academy should not have been put in that position in the first place. Scientific academies are not generally set up to function as large-scale funding agencies. Their role tends to be to recognize their country’s researchers through fellowships and awards, represent the interests of science to governments and, where needed, advise policymakers. Part of their strength comes from being a trusted body of experts. This means they should also not align themselves — or be perceived to be aligning themselves — with external organizations. Many AAS fellows had voiced concerns along these lines.

In addition to the latest plan, the academy now has a fresh leadership and governing council. Oti-Boateng, a Ghanaian biochemist who was formerly a science adviser at the United Nations education, science and cultural organization UNESCO, works with Korsten, a South African food-security researcher who is the AAS’s first female president.

The plan is set to run until 2027, and has five areas of focus: environmental and climate change; health and well-being; natural sciences; policy and governance; and social sciences and humanities. Making improvements in these areas is a priority not only for African countries, but also for nations globally.

Looking ahead

This strategy could not have come at a more important time. Last year, the African Union joined the G20, a group of the world’s largest economies. Scientists meet through the S20, a network of G20 scientific academies, to discuss global challenges and also specific issues of concern to the scientific community. Before the African Union joined the G20, South Africa was the continent’s sole official representative in G20 bodies. By contrast, Europe’s researchers have representation from the academies of France, Germany, Italy and the United Kingdom, as well as Academia Europaea, a pan-European academy headquartered in London. The AAS, along with individual countries’ science academies, represented by the Network of African National Academies, is contributing to events leading up to year’s G20 summit, to be held in July in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. The meeting agenda includes combating climate change and achieving the UN Sustainable Development Goals.

The AAS’s plan also involves attracting scientists in the African diaspora as members. For decades, the continent has haemorrhaged scientists to Europe and North America, and the AAS’s leadership wants to promote researcher and student links between diaspora scientists and colleagues working on the continent. “We have lost a group of young academics who should have now been leaders on the continent, the professors of the future — and maybe we can partially bring them back,” says Korsten. At the same time, broadening the membership should help to strengthen the academy’s finances, which would reduce its reliance on governments and philanthropic donors. The AAS is funded mainly by membership fees paid by its roughly 460 fellows, as well as from the interest from a $5-million endowment fund given to the academy by the Nigerian government in 2001. Other sources include mobility grants from external organizations and money from the European Union African Research Initiative for Scientific Excellence programme, which supports early- and mid-career researchers in dozens of African countries.

The academy has been through some hard times since 2021. It has learnt important lessons and is embarking on an important new phase. All of us who support science in Africa should support the academy, and be a supportive, critical friend to the academy as it strives to achieve its goals.

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