I came across this in skimming, and given a list discussion on pets and what constitutes a 'suitable pet,' I thought others would enjoy this (and our hairy cousins get top billing since the article's not really about pets!) :
http://scientificamerican.com/article.cfm?colID=13&articleID=000D2103-1FEC-1F30-9AD380A84189F2D7 ""Nature, Mr. Allnut, is what we are put in this world to rise above." --Katharine Hepburn to Humphrey Bogart in The African Queen, 1951 "Evolutionary biologist Jared Diamond of the University of California at Los Angeles once classified humans as the "third chimpanzee" (the second being the bonobo). Genetically, we are very similar, and when it comes to high levels of aggression between members of two different groups, as I noted in last month's column on "The Ignoble Savage," we also resemble chimpanzees. Although humans have a brutal history, there's hope that the pessimists who forecast our eventual demise are wrong: recent evidence indicates that, like bonobos, we may be evolving in a more peaceful direction. "One of the most striking features in artificially selecting for docility among wild animals is that, along with far less aggression, you also get a suite of other changes, including a reduction in skull, jaw and tooth size. In genetics, this is called pleiotropy. Selecting for one trait may generate additional, unintended changes. "The most famous study on selective breeding for passivity began in 1959 by Russian geneticist Dmitri Belyaev of the Institute of Cytology and Genetics in Siberia. It continues today under the direction of Lyudmila N. Trut. Silver foxes were bred for friendliness toward humans, defined by a graduating series of criteria, from the animal allowing itself to be approached, to being hand fed, to being petted, to proactively seeking human contact. In only 35 generations the researchers produced tail-wagging, hand-licking, peaceful foxes. What they also created were foxes with smaller skulls, jaws and teeth than their wild ancestors..." I found the above via this fun site with _lots_ of links and blurbs - check out Chapter 6: meat for sex! roving eyes! guppy love! seal pups! click languages! thieving crows! evolution & 'free will!' (I've spent far too much time here today, as you can see... :} ) http://www.biopsychology.com/ Added To My Favorites Maru __________________________________ Do you Yahoo!? Yahoo! SiteBuilder - Free, easy-to-use web site design software http://sitebuilder.yahoo.com _______________________________________________ http://www.mccmedia.com/mailman/listinfo/brin-l
