科学美国人60秒 选择性繁殖使狐狸变成宠物

搜索

复制

Want to make a dog? Well, wolves evolved into dogs at least once. But it turns out you can also make what’s basically a dog by starting with wild foxes. Select the ones that do not seem to want to tear the researcher’s face off and mate them to produce the next generation.

想要“制造”狗吗?狼经过至少一次的交配就可以演变成狗。但是结果表明，你也可以让一只野生的狐狸演变成狗。选择那些比较温顺的，不会将研究人员的脸剥皮的狐狸，与狗进行交配，就可以产生下一代。

“Within five or six generations of this selecting the calmest animals, they had animals that were wagging their tails when Lyudmila would approach them, that were licking her hand when she put it into the cage.”

经过5、6次这样选择最温顺的动物，研究人员选择那些Lyudmila靠近后，会摇尾巴，将它们放入笼子里会舔他的手的动物。

University of Louisville evolutionary¹ biologist Lee Dugatkin, talking about Lyudmila Trut of the Institute of Cytology and Genetics in Siberia.

路易斯维尔大学进化生物学家Lee Dugatkin和西伯利亚细胞学和遗传学研究所的Lyudmila Trut进行了讨论。

“And this is strictly³ as a result of genetic² selection. These animals are not trained to do this, they don’t learn, there’s no mechanism⁴ in the experiment for them to learn anything, what you’re looking at is the result of genetic selection.”

“这是严格基因选择的结果，这些动物并没有经过训练来做这些，它们没有学习，在这次实验中没有任何的机制让这些动物去学习。你们所看到的都是基因选择的结果。”

Trut started this fox domestication⁵ experiment in the late 1950s at the age of 25 and is still running it today. She and her team are approaching their 60th generation of foxes. But they saw profound changes early on.

Trut在25岁，20世纪50年代的时候，就开始了驯化狐狸的实验,现在实验仍在进行。她和团队们正在接触第60代狐狸。但是在早期他们看到了狐狸巨大的变化。

“Within five generations of selection they had these animals that were extraordinarily⁶ docile⁷ towards humans. And then slowly but surely, so many of the other traits that we see in domesticated⁸ animals, also began to appear in these tame foxes...they tend to have floppy⁹ ears and curly tails and they tend to have much more juvenalized facial characteristics.”

在第五代的选择中，这些动物对人类都非常的温顺。然后慢慢地，驯化的动物的一些其他的特征也开始在这些驯服的狐狸中出现…它们耷拉着耳朵，卷曲着尾巴，有很多明显的面部特征。

Trut and Dugatkin are the co-authors of the new book How to Tame a Fox (and Build a Dog) about this long-term study. They also wrote an article about the fox experiment in the May issue of Scientific American. An in-depth discussion with Dugatkin is available as a Science Talk podcast on our Web site.

Trut和Dugatkin合著的一本新书《如何驯服一只狐狸(并塑造一只狗狗)》，这本书介绍了这个长期的研究。她们写的关于狐狸实验的文章也会出版在5月份的《科学美国人》期刊上。想要与Dugatkin进行深入的讨论，那么就来科学美国然网上上的科学讨论播客节目吧。

1 evolutionary   

adj.进化的；演化的，演变的；[生]进化论的

参考例句：

• Life has its own evolutionary process.生命有其自身的进化过程。
• These are fascinating questions to be resolved by the evolutionary studies of plants.这些十分吸引人的问题将在研究植物进化过程中得以解决。

2 genetic   

adj.遗传的，遗传学的

参考例句：

• It's very difficult to treat genetic diseases.遗传性疾病治疗起来很困难。
• Each daughter cell can receive a full complement of the genetic information.每个子细胞可以收到遗传信息的一个完全补偿物。

3 strictly   

adv.严厉地，严格地；严密地

参考例句：

• His doctor is dieting him strictly.他的医生严格规定他的饮食。
• The guests were seated strictly in order of precedence.客人严格按照地位高低就座。

4 mechanism   

n.机械装置；机构，结构

参考例句：

• The bones and muscles are parts of the mechanism of the body.骨骼和肌肉是人体的组成部件。
• The mechanism of the machine is very complicated.这台机器的结构是非常复杂的。

5 domestication   

n.驯养，驯化

参考例句：

• The first was the domestication of animals. 第一个阶段是驯养动物。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• In northwestern China, there is no evidence for endemic domestication of any animals. 在中国西北，没有任何当地动物驯化的迹象。 来自辞典例句

6 extraordinarily   

adv.格外地；极端地

参考例句：

• She is an extraordinarily beautiful girl.她是个美丽非凡的姑娘。
• The sea was extraordinarily calm that morning.那天清晨，大海出奇地宁静。

7 docile   

adj.驯服的，易控制的，容易教的

参考例句：

• Circus monkeys are trained to be very docile and obedient.马戏团的猴子训练得服服贴贴的。
• He is a docile and well-behaved child.他是个温顺且彬彬有礼的孩子。

8 domesticated   

adj.喜欢家庭生活的；（指动物）被驯养了的v.驯化( domesticate的过去式和过去分词 )

参考例句：

• He is thoroughly domesticated and cooks a delicious chicken casserole. 他精于家务，烹制的砂锅炖小鸡非常可口。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• The donkey is a domesticated form of the African wild ass. 驴是非洲野驴的一种已驯化的品种。 来自《简明英汉词典》

9 floppy   

adj.松软的，衰弱的

参考例句：

• She was wearing a big floppy hat.她戴了顶松软的大帽子。
• Can you copy those files onto this floppy disk?你能把那些文件复制到这张软盘上吗？