An Evolutionary Experiment
The name of academician D. K. Belyaev is connected, first and foremost, with the research into the main biological process, evolution. The scientist opened a completely new, previously unknown to geneticists,
An Evolutionary Experiment
The name of academician D. K. Belyaev is connected, first and foremost, with the research into the main biological process, evolution. The scientist opened a completely new, previously unknown to geneticists, chapter of the theory of morphogenetic processes related to the interaction between the main factors of evolution — variation and selection — and used the method quite unusual for such studies, experiment
Domestication of animals is a specific evolutionary event. The debates about the scope and rate of domestication-related changes, which are unexplainable from the standpoint of genetic theory, have been continuing since the time of C. Darwin. It seemed reasonable to trace experimentally the evolutionary pathway of animals subject to domestication during selection according to behavior.
This large-scale experiment reproducing the earliest stage of domestication was commenced by Belyaev as long ago as in the early 1950s with silver-black foxes. The essence of this experiment was the selection of foxes for the tolerance to humans. As a result, a unique population of domesticated foxes, known worldwide, was created. Moreover, the experiment is being continued.
From Foxes to Dogs
The results of an unusual evolutionary experiment have demonstrated that the genetic transformation of behavior (from wild to domesticated) entails the morphological and physiological changes similar to those that took place in the past in dogs and other domestic animals. Of th