학술논문
The silver fox domestication experiment
Document Type
article
Author
Source
Evolution: Education and Outreach, Vol 11, Iss 1, Pp 1-5 (2018)
Subject
Language
English
ISSN
1936-6426
1936-6434
1936-6434
Abstract
Abstract For the last 59 years a team of Russian geneticists led by Lyudmila Trut have been running one of the most important biology experiments of the 20th, and now 21st, century. The experiment was the brainchild of Trut’s mentor, Dmitri Belyaev, who, in 1959, began an experiment to study the process of domestication in real time. He was especially keen on understanding the domestication of wolves to dogs, but rather than use wolves, he used silver foxes as his subjects. Here, I provide a brief overview of how the silver fox domestication study began and what the results to date have taught us (experiments continue to this day). I then explain just how close this study came to being shut down for political reasons during its very first year.