The evidence for the theory of evolution is very strong and can be seen in by animals today. Perhaps one of the most significant evidence for evolution is with the breeding of tame foxes in Russia. Another is with how much genetic material we share with animals. This all happened before cloning or gene mapping, using the old fashioned technique of breeding the best to the best and hoping for the best. That means the means for such changes were already in the bodies of the foxes and dogs, just waiting for the right environment in which to appear.
In less than fifty years (a mere blip in time), wild solid colored foxes with pointed ears changed into tame, spotted, floppy-eared foxes. This occurred in Siberia with the goal of making the foxes farmed for the fur trade easier to handle. The geneticist in charge of the project was Dmitri Belyaev. He used the process of selective breeding only the tamest foxes.
By the tenth generation, there were notable physical changes in the foxes that went along with their less aggressive behavior. They began growing prominent white patches on their body, especially their tail-tips. They began barking. Their ears also stayed as floppy as a newborn kit’s, even when fully matured. It is thought that less aggressive foxes produce different amounts of hormones than their normal, solid colored, pointed eared snappy brethren.
Now, you can’t find these barking, floppy-eared, mutli-colored foxes in the wild. They’re just not there. But the genes were there, waiting for the right moment to tell the body that it was safe to manifest such changes. That’s a big hunt at what happened to the evolution of dogs. And if it happened for one species, why not another?
Humans have 85% of the exact same genetic material as dogs. We also share over 300 diseases and thrive on very similar diets. There’s very little separating us from dogs in the fundamental way that we exist.
There’s even less separating us from chimpanzees. With them, we share almost 99% of the exact same genetic material, according to the University of Toronto’s Centre for Cellular and Bimolecular Research. We also share a large number of diseases like alcoholism, arthritis and AIDS. We even share many of the same taste buds. Our chimpanzee-like ancestors had to change because they had the genes to do so.
And we are not through evolving yet. In a hundred thousand years, we might look like chimpanzees to our descendants.
