The Evolution of Man’s Best Friend

I enjoyed NOVA’s presentation of “Dog’s Decoded” last night. It showed an interesting sexual selection experiment where scientists selected unaggressive foxes and bred them together. After the eighth generation the foxes went from snapping at humans to acting friendly like dogs. Astoundingly, the foxes started to have lighter coats and curving tails just like dogs! There was also an interesting nature vs. nurture study where a wolf cub was raised like a dog. The study showed that you can’t nurture a tame wolf, and that dogs have been genetically created to be our companions.