Understanding Vocal Communication in Dogs

The loyal dog, our first friend, has been an integral part of human society for thousands of years. Over this extensive period of domestication, dogs have developed a sophisticated and diverse repertoire of vocalizations, of which barking is the most prevalent and distinctive. Recent research has begun to unravel the complexities of dog vocal … Read more

Coat Color Variations and Tameness in English Shepherds: A Hypothesis on the Role of Pleiotropy in Domestication

Hypothesis

In English Shepherds, coat color changes could be a result of selection for tameness through a process similar to the one observed in Belyaev’s silver fox experiment. The underlying genetic mechanism may involve pleiotropic effects, where certain genes influence both tameness and coat color.

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Coat Color Transformations and Tameness: Unraveling the Genetic Link Through Selective Breeding in Silver Foxes

Dmitry Belyaev, a Russian geneticist, conducted a long-term experiment on the domestication of silver foxes (Vulpes vulpes) that demonstrated how selecting for tameness could result in a number of correlated changes, including coat color changes. Starting in the late 1950s, Belyaev and his team selectively bred silver foxes, choosing only the tamest individuals to … Read more