Preview

Dawkins Discuses Domestication And Selective Breeding

Satisfactory Essays
Open Document
Open Document
106 Words
Grammar
Grammar
Plagiarism
Plagiarism
Writing
Writing
Score
Score
Dawkins Discuses Domestication And Selective Breeding
In this chapter Dawkins discuses domestication/Selective Breeding. How does his view on domestication/Selective Breeding help you to better understand Natural Selection? The Selective Breeding of domestic animals shows us how a species can change over time. By using selective breeding humans, we able to speed up and control natural selection in order to exaggerate a desired trait (Dawkins). Humans were able to create specific “‘islands’, one for each breed of pedigree dog (Dawkins, 33). By eliminating cross breeding Humans were able to create different breeds in a remarkably short time frame (Dawkins). Selective breeding enables us to see how an animal can change dramatically over time.

You May Also Find These Documents Helpful

  • Good Essays

    This episode analyzed the domestication of animals. It details an experiment performed by a Russian Darwinian geneticist named Dmitri Belyaev. Belyayev wanted to understand how domestication occurs. It seems like a simple question but the results were very interesting. He used silver foxes for his experiment. He had one control group and one experimental group. With the experimental group he controlled which ones were able to breed. The ones that were able to breed did not show fear of humans and were not aggressive. He continued to breed these foxes over and over again. Within 10 years he had successfully domesticated these foxes. Throughout the process of domestication, Belyaev noticed some physical changes that were…

    • 493 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    In George Mivart’s ‘Genesis of Species’, Mivart thoroughly reviews Darwin’s theory of natural selection. Mivart concludes that Darwin’s theory of natural selection is flawed because it cannot account for all of the mechanics of inheritance, specifically the initial developments of useful characteristics. He disputes that natural selection can account for the passing of negative or unnecessary traits, or for individualized traits occurring in only one species. He also asks how certain developments could occur without saltations, an idea absent in Darwin’s theories, but prominent in many of his contemporaries’. To illustrate these issues with natural selection, Mivart uses giraffes, insects that mimic other things in nature, fish, kangaroos, and whales as examples, which I will summarize below.…

    • 610 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    Executive director of the Center for Genetics and Society, Richard Hayes in the article “Genetically Modified Humans? No Thanks”, published in the Washington Post address the topic of science’s developing world of selective genes and rebuttals the promotion of parent selective genes.…

    • 238 Words
    • 1 Page
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Better Essays

    Contribution TMA06

    • 1151 Words
    • 4 Pages

    'Humans have evolved to be fundamentally distinct from other animals'. Critically evaluate this claim drawing on evidence from Chapter 2 and 3 in Book 2.…

    • 1151 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Better Essays
  • Powerful Essays

    In this lab simulation, we studied the different factors that go into natural selection. These factors were things such as: fertility, the complexity of genes, the use of natural selection versus not using it, and the rate of mutation. All of these things would then affect the amount of generations it would take to get the “target phrase.” This target phrase was used as a tool to understand the complexity of some genes compared to the simplicity of others. The first chapter in Dawkins’ book, “The Blind Watchmaker,” correlates the most when it comes to what we studied in the lab. In the first chapter, he describes that complex things such as animals must have been made by design. However, he also explains that this designer is…

    • 1253 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Powerful Essays
  • Better Essays

    "Let my name stand among those who are willing to bear ridicule and reproach for the truth's sake, and so earn some right to rejoice when victory is won." Louisa May Alcott wrote many inspirational novels that explain her personality and her hardships in life. Her writing supported her family, no matter where she was. When Alcott died, her older sister was left and still received the money from her sister's still selling books. Alcott's books are still being sold today, though they may be hard to find. Her most known novel, Little Women, taught the world to appreciate what you have in life, though you may wish for more, what you have is as important as the "fancy" things. Throughout her career, Louisa May Alcott wrote about the many things…

    • 1691 Words
    • 7 Pages
    Better Essays
  • Good Essays

    Every person knows what the circle of life consists of- to be born, to grow and to die. The lines between the right and wrongs of each are fuzzy and unclear. Assisted suicide brings up one of the biggest moral debates and there are so many questions with no clear answers: who should and shouldn’t be allowed to assist in suicides? Should assisted suicide be just for the terminally ill, or for all? What protection will there be for the people? and the biggest question of all- is it right or wrong? Those who are considered “pro-death”, believe that being able to choose how one dies is their own right. That there is a significant “difference between killing a patient and allowing a patient to die” (Breslow). Others however, believe The Suicide…

    • 161 Words
    • 1 Page
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Adaptive introgression has proven to have many adaptive values and affects the genomic variation of humans and many other species. Many populations display examples of introgression. In the article prof. Haws and Cochran talk about introgression and how it affects it affects genomic variation among humans and other species. Introgression has proven to have adaptive values and is quantifiable. It can have several outcomes; it can reduce fitness and create sterility, but at the same time it can help the organism adapt better to its environment. It can increase depending in changes in environment. Introgressive genotypes can travel though time and space surviving without being noticed for many years. It has been important for breeding experiments…

    • 638 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Powerful Essays

    He solely bases his beliefs on the quantity of evidence held by each side, using scientific evidence when regarding evolution and biblical literalism when regarding creationism. Dawkins from his statement concludes that based on his studies, all the evidence points towards evolution, implying that the Bible or any other religious book or testament is not a sufficient amount of data to conclude that the belief that life was created by a divine being is legitimate. Furthermore, Dawkins’ argument is captivating by distinctly claiming that he believes in one side over the other, averting from flaw of the “Integration” model, where science and religion can be basically unified as if they were in the same field of study. Additionally, Dawkins mentions the lack of evidence creationism has which can be compared to a film in which a character had the same problem,…

    • 1501 Words
    • 7 Pages
    Powerful Essays
  • Good Essays

    Richard Dawkins is an Oxford biologist and well respected speaker who believes there is no such thing as God or anything supernatural. He adopted the theory of natural selection as an "adequate explanation for the beauty and complexity of life" (Dawkins, 2009, p. 23). Richard Dawkins’ feelings about family, social issues and the nature of God is represented in his worldview. I will compare and contrast the values and actions of Richard Dawkins with my own.…

    • 918 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Better Essays

    Science and technology is used for genetic diversity, selective breeding is used especially in farming for livestock. Selective breeding means artificial selection means the controlled breeding of animals or plants by humans so only individuals with specific characteristics can reproduce. Farmers use this technique to get the best quality cattle and produce from the animals they have. To get the best animal possible, for example a milk cow, the farmer will select the best cows from the heard to breed from, these may be the ones with the largest udders or biggest milk yield, he will then breed from this animal, and the F1 offspring will be raised and used for milk. In the F1 generation he will do the same again, selecting the best cows from the generation, the F2 generation will have the most favourable characteristics and will have lost any of the unfavourable characteristics as they have been bread out of…

    • 1261 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Better Essays
  • Better Essays

    “Wolves are the dogs that stayed behind.” The world is a cruel place. A thing that can be treasured in one instance can be a threat in the next. For many people, we stare at the natural world and see its rugged beauty and wish that we could captivate it for ourselves. The case is no different for our modern dogs. Bred from the “empty canvas” of a wolf, we’ve modified, altered, formed, transformed, reformed, and remodified wolves to be one of the closest companions we have still today: dogs. But through all of our perfecting and reshaping that we’ve done to our best friends’ closest ancestors, wolves have prevailed, echoing their famous legacy still throughout the world. Wolves, now in danger of extinction, are one of the greatest controversies…

    • 1602 Words
    • 7 Pages
    Better Essays
  • Good Essays

    Communication Skills in dogs are incredibly more advance than even our close relatives the chimpanzee. There are many theories as to how these skills evolved in dogs to become the companions of humans. The hypotheses that dogs evolved through domestication to satisfy the need of human interaction through companionship is one that scientist often agree on. Domestication suggests that dogs evolved from wolves. The production of the dog is correlated with two factors, which are biological and cultural processes. The biological factor suggest that the parent wolf was secluded from its original population and a genetic drift occurred. This drift became successful over generations and genetically modified by natural selection. The cultural process suggests that when wolves became subdued through ownership of mankind that these animals became tamed. This led to alterations from a wild carnivore to an adapted domestic dog for human companionship.…

    • 297 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    The well known ecologist Charles Darwin exhibited the hypothesis of natural selection. He went on numerous trips to the wildlife, taking after his interest of the nature and the change that happens in the nature. After examining different kinds of living organisms, he clarified Natural Selection as "preservation of favorable variations and the rejecting of injurious variations."(900). Darwin utilized relations and demonstrations to show that distinctive changes happened in the same specie, which assisted them with adapting to their environment.…

    • 714 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Selective breeding in dogs. Also known as artificial selection, is the process by which humans use animal breeding and plant breeding to develop particular traits on the animals such as how they look or to produce certain exaggerated traits. There are many different types of traits that make reason for selective breeding, mainly physical, and only some for good emotional and disease blocking purposes. In a lot of ways, this is similar to inbreeding in humans. Selective Breeding a bad thing because of the treacherous things that can happen because of it, the funding of something that produces less good than there ever will be, selective breeding.…

    • 848 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays