Russian Dog Breeds

Posted in Dog Information on 03/29/2009 12:51 am by admin

Russian Dog Breeds

The eminent evolutionist Charles Darwin postulated that evolution has been gradual, paced slowly through the course of time covering the period of several generations. At the most basic evolutionary changes are as a response to environmental changes, a dynamic that gives feel very logical, after all why would an agency responsible for costs biological morphological and genetic changes if there was no place for her? A look at the crocodile to see a species that has changed little over 40 million years and yet still, is superbly suited to excel in their particular niche of the environment!

The dog is another example of successful evolution. Born into wolves there are approximately 400 million dogs worldwide compared to 400, 000 wolves, dogs other words, the wolves are most numerous today by a multiple of 1000. In fact, when one considers that the dogs made their debut on the earth as a separate species (widely accepted as everywhere between 15,000 to 10,000 years, although the jury is still about the date of first appearance), then the evolution of the dog in more than 400 breeds that exist today is less than a miracle nothing! Fifteen thousand years on the scale of the evolution of things is no time!

Bred for selectivity?

Popular opinion favors the idea that the dog has evolved so rapidly because it has been selectively bred by humans for traits that have defined the different breeds of dogs. Although there are many evidence that dogs existed 8000 years ago, such evidence of their existence, around and beyond 15,000 years ago are rare at best. This raises the question, how could one species like the dog found its way quite well in the span of a few years 5000 - 7000?

This can not be credited for reproduction selective humanity Mesolithic man was certainly not the time, tools, knowledge, intelligence or sizeable population of wolves tamed with which to conduct an effective characteristic of selective breeding. There is enough concrete evidence but that many dog breeds existed around 3000-4000 years ago and that by the time the Romans many common species of today existed.

Tameness Trait coincided with Floppy Ears, Barking and changes in coat color!

How the morphology of the dog and genetic composition changed so radically from that of the wolf in such a short period, for the longest time was quite the mystery. However, as often happens in these cases, the experimental research conducted on an entirely different animal revealed the key to how the change occurred. In the 1950s a Russian scientist named Dmitri Belyaev began breeding selectively silver fox (Vulpes vulpes) only for taming. The initial aim of this experiment was to produce a fox that was more affordable and manageable by the man who would have greatly helped the breeding and breeding these animals for their fur.

The problem the farmers was felt that, despite the fact that the animals they were dealing with had been bred in captivity for over 50 years by any stretch of imagination could they be considered domestic or domesticated, certainly not in the way that the dog is! Foxes often avoided their owners, even bits, and other Once the animals themselves injured in an effort to escape their captors.

Belyaev and his colleagues have therefore chosen foxes presented the lowest fear / shyness people for their breeding program, their goal was to breed selectively for the docile character. With generations successive selective breeding, the foxes became tamer and tamer, so that by the ninth generation they rise a fox that had all the characteristics of a domestic dog. The foxes would actually approach people climb on them, rolling on his stomach tickled and even responded to their names.

Perhaps the most surprising aspect of the selective breeding program that has been foxes, foxes do like more, but looked and acted like dogs. The gowns are more foxes furs of silver in high demand characteristics by the fur industry, but were in black and white pie instead. Moreover, the tails of foxes have been cordoned off and turned up their ears were floppy and to top it all, even animals like dogs barking! Dmitri Belyaev had not requested nor bred for these characteristics but nonetheless, they still show!

A subsequent investigation of the unexpected side effects revealed that breeding familiarity trigger a whole cascade of hormonal changes in animals. It was observed that the "domesticated" foxes have significantly lower levels of epinephrine, which explains their taming (reduction in flight-or-fight reflex), but does not explain the other changes observed. However, it has not long before Belyaev and his colleagues made the connection, units of the hormone adrenaline, a biochemical pathway with melanin, a hormone that plays a role important in the coat color of an animal.

In simple terms, the selective breeding for the trait taming left and drove a whole slew genetic changes in animals in an astonishingly short period. It is now widely accepted that the wolf has undergone a similar transition to evolve futures in the domestic dog.

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Article Source: ArticlesBase.com - Dog Evolution: How the Dog Evolved so Rapidly Into a New Species

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