On Mon, Aug 12, 2013 at 8:58 PM, Chris de Morsella <[email protected]>wrote:
>I was wondering if there is any evidence baked into the DNA so to speak; > in other words are there any areas of coding DNA that are known to be (or > perhaps suspected of being) linked to and involved with such behavioral > traits as herding instinct etc. > In 1959 a breeding program was started with foxes, one group was bred for aggregation the other group for tameness. Today the aggressive foxes are so dangerous a human dare not even approach them, but the tame foxes not only behave like dogs remarkably they've even started to look like dogs, and people looking at photos of the 2 groups almost universally regard the tame group as looking cuter than the aggressive breed. http://www.sciencenews.org/view/generic/id/350422/description/Tamed_fox_shows_domestications_effects_on_the_brain John K Clark > that have been shown to have evolved in dogs (or more accurately been bred > into dogs by human directed breeding for desired traits). > > > I would not be surprised at all to find that there were, and feel pretty > certain that a delta mapping of wolf DNA and say a Sheep Collies DNA will > show changes in the key sets of genes that would be implicated in these > behaviors... that is if we know what they are. > > Mapping behaviors to genes gets tricky because things as complex as a > behavior, such as the instinct to herd sheep, probably draws upon multiple > DNA coding sequences located in possibly different genes even. I don't > think geneticists really have nailed down how instincts are wired into our > genetic heredity -- we have statistical correlations and such, but - > perhaps it is my own ignorance, but no clear story as to how these > genetically encoded behavior genes actually work -- end to end. > > While, for example some Newspaper headline may boldly state that > scientists have found the "gene" for aggression say, a deeper read will > reveal that what was found was some DNA that may influence whether or not > an individual becomes aggressive, for example, but that whether they > actually do or not also depends on a lot of other co-factors, making it > hard to determine what the trigger chain of events and changes actually is > in reality. Very often, it turns out there is an environmental component in > how behavioral traits arise in an individual as well. > > The interplay between hereditary information and the many dynamic > processes at work in the organism at each phase: from the transcription > phase that ultimately results in mRNA strands becoming used as a template > in the ribosome to produce amino acid chains is still too poorly > understood -- IMO -- for assertive statements. > > We hypothesize the genetic component in many behaviors; have found regions > of DNA that are implicated in controlling behavior, but the science is > still underdeveloped, the genetic maps we have at our disposal far too > course and incomplete and our understanding of the many dynamic processes > at work still incomplete. > > But -- [laughing] -- maybe I just need to catch up... it is such a rapidly > moving field. > > -Chris > *From:* meekerdb <[email protected]> > *To:* [email protected] > *Sent:* Monday, August 12, 2013 11:56 AM > > *Subject:* Re: Serious proof of why the theory of evolution is wrong > > On 8/12/2013 9:41 AM, Chris de Morsella wrote: > > What co-evolutionary traits have been shown to have occurred in dogs and > cattle because of their association with humans (so which are therefore > part of the equation)? > > > Dogs are just wolves that, thru (un)natural selection have evolved to bond > with humans as with a pack. Cattle similarly evolved to be docile and > tolerant of humans. > > For example with sheep – is sheep dog behavior evolved? Or are they > expressing genetic potential that was already innate in their species? That > would also be an interesting example, if it can be shown that an evolved > set of behaviors (e.g. instincts) developed in those dog species that were > bred for working with cattle or sheep that is absent in other dog species > that there are epigenetic and/or DNA encoding differences that are related > to and underpin the behaviors and traits being observed. > > > Wolves herd sheep too, so there was innate potential. But dogs can also > learn a lot of words. I don't know whether wolves can or not. That might > be an evolved capability. > > Brent > -- > You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups > "Everything List" group. > To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an > email to [email protected]. > To post to this group, send email to [email protected]. > Visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/everything-list. > For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/groups/opt_out. > > > > > -- > You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups > "Everything List" group. > To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an > email to [email protected]. > To post to this group, send email to [email protected]. > Visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/everything-list. > For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/groups/opt_out. > -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "Everything List" group. 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