<story><title>Cash Cows</title><url>https://www.ageofinvention.xyz/p/age-of-invention-cash-cows</url></story><parent_chain></parent_chain><comment><author>swalling</author><text>One interesting fact is that Darwin directly referred to Bakewell in the first chapter of On the Origin of Species:&lt;p&gt;“a kind of Selection, which may be called Unconscious, and which results from every one trying to possess and breed from the best individual animals, is more important. Thus, a man who intends keeping pointers naturally tries to get as good dogs as he can, and afterwards breeds from his own best dogs, but he has no wish or expectation of permanently altering the breed. Nevertheless I cannot doubt that this process, continued during centuries, would improve and modify any breed, in the same way as Bakewell, Collins, &amp;amp;c., by this very same process, only carried on more methodically, did greatly modify, even during their own lifetimes, the forms and qualities of their cattle.”</text></comment>
<story><title>Cash Cows</title><url>https://www.ageofinvention.xyz/p/age-of-invention-cash-cows</url></story><parent_chain></parent_chain><comment><author>fbdab103</author><text>Selective breeding always struck me as interesting for the sheer amount of time required for experimentation. Pick your pairs, and then wait 2-5 years before you can repeat the cycle again.&lt;p&gt;Amazing that a single lifetime was able to yield measurable results.&lt;p&gt;Also reminded of the fox domestication program[0] where they were able to go from wild foxes to a dog-like domesticated breed within a decade.&lt;p&gt;&amp;gt;Belyaev was correct that selection on tameness alone leads to the emergence of traits in the domestication syndrome. In less than a decade, some of the domesticated foxes had floppy ears and curly tails (Fig. 2). Their stress hormone levels by generation 15 were about half the stress hormone (glucocorticoid) levels of wild foxes. Over generations, their adrenal gland became smaller and smaller. Serotonin levels also increased, producing “happier” animals. Over the course of the experiment, researchers also found the domesticated foxes displayed mottled “mutt-like” fur patterns, and they had more juvenilized facial features (shorter, rounder, more dog-like snouts) and body shapes (chunkier, rather than gracile limbs)&lt;p&gt;[0] &lt;a href=&quot;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;evolution-outreach.biomedcentral.com&amp;#x2F;articles&amp;#x2F;10.1186&amp;#x2F;s12052-018-0090-x&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;evolution-outreach.biomedcentral.com&amp;#x2F;articles&amp;#x2F;10.118...&lt;/a&gt;</text></comment>