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How to tame a fox (and build a dog) : visionary scientists and a Siberian tale of jump-started evolution
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How to tame a fox (and build a dog) : visionary scientists and a Siberian tale of jump-started evolution

by Lee Alan Dugatkin, Lyudmila Trut

This account examines a long-term Siberian experiment that replicated the domestication of wolves into dogs using silver foxes. It explores the genetic and behavioural changes observed across fifty-six generations of selective breeding for tameness.

Accession 12106 ISBN 9780226444185 Publisher University of Chicago Press
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Animals Biography Biology Life Sciences Professions Psychology Science Social Sciences
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name→ title
How to tame a fox (and build a dog) : visionary scientists and a Siberian tale of jump-started evolution
vernon_id
16240
accession_no→ accession_number
12106
vernon_slug
how-to-tame-a-fox-and-build-a-dog-visionary-scientists-and-a-siberian-tale-of-jump-started-evolution-lee-alan-dugatkin-lyudmila-trut

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Descriptive

production_date
2017
object_type
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brief_description
Tucked away in Siberia, there are furry, four-legged creatures with wagging tails and floppy ears that are as docile and friendly as any lapdog. But, despite appearances, these are not dogs they are foxes. They are the result of the most astonishing experiment in breeding ever undertaken imagine speeding up thousands of years of evolution into a few decades. In 1959, biologists Dmitri Belyaev and Lyudmila Trut set out to do just that, by starting with a few dozen silver foxes from fox farms in the USSR and attempting to recreate the evolution of wolves into dogs in real time in order to witness the process of domestication. This is the extraordinary, untold story of this remarkable undertaking. Most accounts of the natural evolution of wolves place it over a span of about 15,000 years, but within a decade, Belyaev and Trut's fox breeding experiments had resulted in puppy-like foxes with floppy ears, piebald spots and curly tails. Along with these physical changes came genetic and behavioral changes, as well. The foxes were bred using selection criteria for tameness, and with each generation, they became increasingly interested in human companionship.Trut has been there the whole time, and has been the lead scientist on this work since Belyaev's death in 1985, and with Lee Dugatkin, biologist and science writer, she tells the story of the adventure, science, politics, and love behind it all. In How to Tame a Fox, Dugatkin and Trut take us inside this path-breaking experiment in the midst of the brutal winters of Siberia to reveal how scientific history is made and continues to be made today. To date, fifty-six generations of foxes have been domesticated, and we continue to learn significant lessons from them about the genetic and behavioral evolution of domesticated animals. How to Tame a Fox offers an incredible tale of scientists at work, while also celebrating the deep attachments that have brought humans and animals together throughout time.

Subjects & people

authors→ author (initial fill only)
Lee Alan Dugatkin, Lyudmila Trut
tags→ tags
Science, Psychology, Life sciences, Biology, Genetics, Animals, Domestic animals, Scientists, Professions, Occupations, Dogs, Organisms, Life (Biology), Cells, Domestication, Animal behaviour, Animal psychology, Chromosomes, Cell nuclei, Cell organelles, Cytoplasm, Biologists, Life scientists, Genetic engineering, Genetic recombination, Geneticists, Microbiologists
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Lyudmila Trut
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18996

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