As I’m sure you all know, February 12th is Darwin Day, a day to celebrate science and the insight into humanity that the scientific method in general, and Darwin’s studies in particular, have brought about.
In honor of the day, check out this article on dog evolution — scientists have sequenced the DNA of ten different dog breeds and are discovering exactly what mutations our selective breeding has brought about, including what puts the wrinkles on Shar-peis.
Dogs (Canis lupus familiaris) were first domesticated around 14,000 years ago, long before the field of genetics even existed, though most dog breeds were developed in the last few centuries. As humans bred dogs for features such as shorter legs or a docile temperament, they were actually tinkering with genes, while influencing the selection and expression of dog genes.
[…]
Previous studies of dog genes have paired genes to their resulting phenotype — for example, the stumpy legs of Dachshunds — but these studies started with the physical trait and looked for the corresponding gene or genes that coded for it. Akey’s study instead compared gene regions that showed signs of change between breeds and looked for physical traits that might correspond to those changes.The team found 155 distinct genetic locations that showed evidence of tampering from breeding.
Artificial selection directly proves evolution. The fact that we can artificially select for traits just like nature can naturally select for them in what amounts to an environmental arms race, and that these traits build upon themselves over time, is self-evident. If we keep selecting chihuahuas away from great danes, we could speciate them. In fact, they’re pretty close to speciated already, with the size differential making for mating to be terribly difficult. And they all come from wild dogs, which humans once domesticated.
Darwin suspected all of this and wrote it all out in book form before anyone else was able to articulate it, short of Wallace who barely managed a few pages. But the idea had been around for some time before, and those people actively engaged in artificial selection actually figured out a lot of the mechanisms behind it. It’s been staring us in the face for as long as we’ve existed, and we only figured it out 150 years ago. It boggles the mind.
I love reading stuff like this -every time I come across anything that shows how far we have advanced since Darwin did his thing, I just get giddy. It’s so cool! It bums me out that people can’t appreciate the complexity and downright awesomeness of the world around us without having to call it evil or imposing their silly religion on it. Reality is so much more fascinating.
I said something very similar early in my and Jodi’s relationship. Something along the lines of how I didn’t get how people could need something “bigger” or “more” than the real reality that actually surrounds us, when we hardly have any of that real reality figured out yet — and the stuff we’ve figured out is just so fucking awesome.
I enjoy reading and watching programs about things like this, one of the most interesting articles I read in the last couple of months was about chihuahas and the new research that is suggesting that they were not bred originally from pure lupus stock but were bred from a relative of foxes that then was able to interbreed with the newer canine breeds. It was quite interesting at the time, I am hoping to see an update on the research they are doing on it.
Oh and I forgot to say it “Happy Darwin Day”
Wow. Shannon, that’s kind of a cool concept on the Chihuahua’s! Do you remember the source by any chance.
I think it is interesting that Darwin led On the Origins with the discussion of the rapid morphological changes that can be made using artificial selection, and from there introduced natural selection. What amazes me is that creationists haven’t understood nor read that part (unless they are willfully ignorant,)
Darwin had been working on this idea for more than 20 years, gathering and analyzing the data and information, meticulously and with great patience. There had been some others who had briefly discussed the ideas (and their names escape me at the moment,) so Darwin didn’t discover Natural Selection. He just demonstrated how it works so that people as a whole could understand it, and then fire their fucking ministers for lying to them. (j/k)
I have heard stories like this before – things like Manx cats resulting from crossing cats with rabbits, Pixie-Bob cats resulting from a domestic cat/bobcat cross, etc. So far, all of the ones I have seen have turned out to be just-so story myths. (I was following the claim about the PixieBobs since I live with one, and recent genetic testing has confirmed the tale to be false.) Here is a blog post I found with some more information about the chihuahua-fox story: http://retrieverman.wordpress.com/2008/12/05/a-crazy-theory-on-chihuhua-origins/
And, Happy (belated) Darwin day, everyone. Ottawa Skeptics had a party at which we enjoyed a talk about Darwin, followed by a Darwin trivia game that included writing limericks. Here’s one of them:
The trip on this boat is quite dreary
The tedium makes me so teary
I’m here on the Beagle
My thoughts are illegal
And after all it’s just a theory