-
We all grew up believing it
would take long periods of time,
-
a slow process of evolution, in
order to involve,
-
in order to transform a wolf
into a dog.
-
But, boy, from the
archaeological records or
whatever,
-
it was an instant of
time.
-
How could it be possible for one
species to evolve suddenly into another.
-
Clues were to emerge
unexpectedly from
-
an experiment conducted in the
old Soviet Union.
-
I really think that the Belyaev
experiments was one of the most
-
significant experiments in
-
evolution that took place in the
twentieth century,
-
and it affected my life and my
thinking in so many ways.
-
The experiment was begun in the
1950s at a fox farm in Siberia.
-
The foxes were being bred
for their fur,
-
but they were wild animals that
were hard to handle and
-
often too stressed to breed.
-
Dmitry Belyaev, a geneticist,
was taken on to see if he could
-
develop foxes that would be
easier to keep.
-
He began his experiment by
breeding together those
-
foxes with the least excitable
temperaments.
-
Belyaev selected foxes by a
simple method.
-
He extended a gloved hand into
each animal's cage.
-
The foxes that attacked,
cowered,
-
or bit him were excluded from breeding.
-
But those that showed tolerance
-
or curiosity were mated together.
-
In effect, Belyaev was selecting
the foxes for their flight distance.
-
The subsequent results were
staggering.
-
The new generations of foxes
were transformed,
-
not just in behavior but in
their appearance.
-
Within just ten years, the
selected foxes showed new
-
variety in their color.
-
Some were born with mottled
coats or black
-
and white patches.
-
Their ears became floppy.
-
They started to bark, vocalize.
-
They became highly playful even
into adulthood and were no
-
longer afraid of people.
-
Some of the foxes even began to
answer to their names.
-
Belyaev had stumbled across the
discovery that selecting for the
-
quality of tameness alone could
-
set off a cascade of other changes.
-
We can still see evidence of
this quantum leap at the same
-
research center today.
-
Up to that point, we all kind of
believed Darwin,
-
and Darwin said nature does not
go in leaps.
-
Things don't happen fast.
-
They happen gradually.
-
And the answer was with Belyaev
experiment - he was wrong.
-
They do go in leaps and
sometimes big leaps.
-
Things that you wouldn't expect.
-
The theory is here that we're
dealing with some underlying
-
structure.
-
When we're dealing with
tameness,
-
we're dealing with a set of
genetics that is producing a
-
characteristic response.
-
It is not a coincidence that
many domesticated animals are
-
black and white.
-
When selection is made for
tameness,
-
it impacts on the entire makeup
of the animal.
-
Scientists have determined that
adrenalin,
-
the fight or flight hormone, and
melanin, the skin and fur
pigment,
-
are chemically connected, so
they change together,
-
as are the neurotransmitters
dopamine and noradrenaline which
-
control behaviors.
-
Affect one system, and there is
a domino effect from color to behaviors.
-
Koppenja's scavenging wolves
may have undergone a similar
-
transformation.
-
When all of a sudden
Belyaev's experiments...
-
It changed the way a lot
of us began to think about dogs.
-
People talked about...
-
Why did people select dogs to
have this coat color or
-
that coat color and so on?
-
Why did people select dogs to
bark?
-
And then all of a sudden we
realized those were a bunch of
-
really silly questions,
-
because we could get all of that
just by selecting for tameness.
-
Belyaev created foxes that
looked and behaved like dogs.
-
His experiment suggested that
the transformation of the wild
-
wolf into the dog could have
happened in the blink of an
-
evolutionary eye.
-
The stage was set for the
development of the dog
-
into the incredible
variety we have today.
