Its all about selection for flight distance. (Oh, for plants, that's dispersal distance!)
Greg Laden's Blog
Evolution, Life Sciences, Science Education, Human Evolution, and Stuff
Looking for stuff about birds?
Learn more about Charles Darwin and his work.
Lean more about lions
An archaeological expedition to the Congo
The Skeptical Search Engine
The contents of Greg Laden's Blog are copyrighted by Greg Laden.
Recent Comments
- Greg Laden on What is Markdown and why use it?
- No one on New Theory of Dinosaur Extinction
- Satish Goda on Fun with the Linux seq command
- Donald Iljazi on What is Markdown and why use it?
- Greg Laden on The grey squirrel from a birder's point of view
- Charles on The grey squirrel from a birder's point of view
- Greg Laden on The grey squirrel from a birder's point of view
- Greg Laden on Seismic Activity at Yellowstone
- Connie Davis on Who has a higher IQ, cats or dogs?
- lynda on Seismic Activity at Yellowstone
Search
Profile
Click on "About" for the big picture, and "Archives" for the details.
Recent Posts
- Looking for stuff about birds?
- Environmentally Friendly Hard Drive Case
- Charles Darwin February 12, 1809 - April 19, 1882
- Whitney Houston has died
- Lions!
- Changing the rep of Fungi one mushroom-based robot thingie-builder at a time
- More Mississippi Meanderings
- Is climate change a leftist scientific conspiracy to destroy America?
- Oldest Animals Discovered in Namibia
- Wild Mississippi
Blogroll
If you don't see yourself on my blogroll, just drop me a line and let me know. I'll add you.*- 10,000 Birds
- Alpha Meme
- a Nadder!
- Angry by Choice
- Armchair Dissident
- (((Billy))) The Atheist
- blogfish
- blogSci
- Blond Nonbeliever
- Blue Lion Blog
- Bug Girl's Blog
- Camels with Hammers
- Catalogue of Oganisms
- Cassandra's Tears
- Class M Planet
- Cocktail Party Physics
- Counter Minds
- Cranky Linguist, The
- Crowded Head, Cozy Bed
- Dead Racist Society
- Deep Sea News
- Dispersal of Darwin
- Divine Afflatus
- Dread Tomato Addiction
- Evil is Underrated
- Evolved and Rational
- Evolving in Kansas
- Evolving Thoughts
- Fellman Studio Blog
- Flying Trilobite
- Further Thoughts
- Hoxful Monsters
- ICBS Everywhere
- Illusory Tenant
- It's Alive!!
- Jafcisa
- Letters from a Broad
- Life Before Death
- Looking For Detachment
- Matharu's Rants and Raves
- Mors dei
- Natural Reckonings
- Nature Blog Network
- Providentia
- Qeyḥ bāḥrī
- Quiche Moraine
- Religion, Sets, and Politics
- Sandwalk
- Sarah Zielinski
- Science Notes
- The Seething Primate
- Skepchick
- Spanish Inquisitor
- Splendid Elles
- Survival Machine
- Synapostasy
- TalkOrigins
- Tangled Up in Blue Guy
- Tetrapod Zoology
- The Flying Trilobite
- The Inoculated Mind
- The Intersection
- The Loom (new)
- The Scientific Activist
- The Unexamined Life..
- The Zone
- Thinking for Free
- Think Progress
- Three Toed Sloth
- Toomanytribbles
- Traumatized by Truth
- Truth Is a Woman
- udreamofjanie
- Uncommon Liberty
- View from the Pond
- Vickie Henderson Art
- When Pigs Fly Returns
- Writer's Daily Grind
Archives
- February 2012
- January 2012
- December 2011
- November 2011
- October 2011
- September 2011
- August 2011
- July 2011
- June 2011
- May 2011
- April 2011
- March 2011
- February 2011
- January 2011
- December 2010
- November 2010
- October 2010
- September 2010
- August 2010
- July 2010
- June 2010
- May 2010
- April 2010
- March 2010
- February 2010
- January 2010
- December 2009
- November 2009
- October 2009
- September 2009
- August 2009
- July 2009
- June 2009
- May 2009
- April 2009
- March 2009
- February 2009
- January 2009
- December 2008
- November 2008
- October 2008
- September 2008
- August 2008
- July 2008
- June 2008
- May 2008
- April 2008
- March 2008
- February 2008
- January 2008
- December 2007
- November 2007
- October 2007
« Anonymityville Horror? | Main | Blogospherics: Recommended reads »
Evolution and Domestication: Foxes
Posted on: August 5, 2008 6:05 PM, by Greg Laden
Find more posts in: 
Life Science
Humanities & Social Science
Life ScienceHumanities & Social ScienceTrackBacks
TrackBack URL for this entry: http://scienceblogs.com/mt/pings/78166
Comments
I made a presentation about Belyaev's experiment when I was at school :)
It turns out, that a lot of other changes also took place. For example, size and mass of brain reduced (almost by 20%). Some instincts were lost. And so on.
I still have this presentation, but it's in Russian :)
Posted by: Alex Besogonov | August 5, 2008 7:11 PM
As soon as I saw this I thought about the transition of wolves to dogs. Of course people bred the more friendly wolves, it makes sense.
Amazing stuff. I wonder too about our feline friends. They've been bred for tame behavior, or more kittenish behavior. Yet I have a red mackerel tabby named Angie sitting right next to me. Oh she's a feisty cat, if she doesn't like something she lets you know.
Posted by: Tony P | August 5, 2008 8:27 PM
Great video, having read about these experiments it was great to get a visual.
Posted by: sailor | August 5, 2008 8:33 PM
Of course, this means that the wild fox populations from which the foxes were brought into captivity must have had substantial genetic variation in the genes controlling aggressiveness etc. This in turn probably means that features of their natural environment (physical, social) sometimes favoured the 'domestication' phenotype.
Posted by: Rosie Redfield | August 5, 2008 8:44 PM
The felines are just waiting for their chance. It will come some day.
Rosie: One can imagine that a fox/wolf that was too 'domesticated' ... because it had the odd combination of traits randomly from among the variation you (correctly) suggest as likely, would be selected against in the wild (but not on the fox farm or by the Cave Kids who insist on keeping the puppy-wolf).
Posted by: Greg Laden | August 5, 2008 10:11 PM
This short movie was far too simple. Susan Crockford has a theory (about thyroid hormones under stress) as an agent of faster evolution.
see: http://www.coconutstudio.com/Iodine%20Human%20Catalyst.htm#Heterochrony
quote:
D.K. Belyaev and his colleagues selected, from local fur farms, about 20% that were less fearful and aggressive, but still could not be handled. After a few generations, some females were in oestrus twice a year instead of just once (although it took time for the males to catch up).
Suddenly, after just twenty generations, novel traits suddenly appeared: curled tails, floppy ears, brown piebald, and classic white piebald coat colourings.
Inexplicably, all of these traits, once they had appeared, inherited in dominant fashion. Their offspring normally had the same traits
It's not limited to selection, but selection for underlying, possibly unknown traits.
regards
Richard
Posted by: Richard Parker | August 6, 2008 2:42 AM
When domesticated dogs are turned loose in the wilds, they quickly revert to wildness, losing their dog-looks and dog-habits, quickly turning wolf-like. It doesn't take long, either.
I was once with some friends hunting in the Mojave Desert when a pack of feral dogs began hunting us. They kept a circle around us, each of them probing for weaknesses, making the best use of terrain. Despite the fact that we were heavily armed, I was never more afraid in my life. The obvious intelligence and cunning of those animals reminded me so much of wild beasts I came to know through David Attenborough.
Posted by: 6EQUJ5 | August 6, 2008 4:53 AM
WTF? veryli u iz blasfeem aganst Me, teh 1 Tru Ceiling Cat wot maded u but did not eated u!
bhold, I iz strech forf Mai mitey paw 2 mek Mai kittehs strong, dat dey shal not b pwnz0rd bai teh evol planz ov teh sily hy00minz.
4 I hav maded Mai kittehs 2 pwnz0rz u & other wiez do wot evr dey pleezes. veryli i sais u2 u, I teh 1 Tru Ceiling Cat noes ur sily hy00min mindz, dat u luvz it & u noes it. so htere.
nao u shal repent ov ur blasfemeez & offrz Me sakrifyses ov cheezburgerz RITE NAO, so dat I teh 1 Tru Ceiling Cat b not rathful 2 sendz u plegs ov Mai kittehs 2 turnz aganst ur n00 furnichr 2 shred it. (no garanteez lololol but iz wurf a try newai.)
kthxbai. =^..^=
Posted by: mesenjr ov Ceiling Cat (AKA themadlolscientist, FCD) | August 6, 2008 2:24 PM