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The Feral Dogs of Chernobyl Are Experiencing Rapid Evolution, Study Suggests Have the canines acquired strange mutations living near the power plant?
popular mechanics magazine ^ | Published: Nov 27, 2024 9:53 AM EST | By Darren Orf

Posted on 02/24/2025 9:12:07 AM PST by dennisw

For decades, scientists have studied animals living in or near the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant to see how increased levels of radiation affect their health, growth, and evolution.

A study analyzed the DNA of 302 feral dogs living near the power plant, compared the animals to others living 10 miles away, and found remarkable differences.

On April 26, 1986, the Chernobyl Nuclear Reactor in northern Ukraine—then part of the Soviet Union—exploded, sending a massive plume of radiation into the sky. Nearly four decades later, the Chernobyl Power Plant and many parts of the surrounding area remain uninhabited—by humans, at least.

Animals of all kinds have thrived in humanity’s absence. Living among radiation-resistant fauna are thousands of feral dogs, many of whom are descendants of pets left behind in the speedy evacuation of the area so many years ago. As the world’s greatest nuclear disaster approaches its 40th anniversary.

Biologists are now taking a closer look at the animals located inside the Chernobyl Exclusion Zone (CEZ), which is about the size of Yosemite National Park, and investigating how decades of radiation exposure may have altered animals’ genomes—and even, possibly, sped up evolution.

The idea of radiation speeding up natural evolution isn’t a new one. The practice of purposefully irradiating seeds in outer space to induce advantageous mutations, for example, is now a well-worn method for developing crops well-suited for a warming world.

Scientists have been analyzing certain animals living within the CEZ for years, including bacteria, rodents, and even birds. One study back in 2016 found that Eastern tree frogs (Hyla orientalis), which are usually a green color, were more commonly black within the CEZ. The biologists theorize that the frogs experienced a beneficial mutation in melanin—pigments responsible for skin color—that helped dissipate and neutralize some of the surrounding radiation.

(Excerpt) Read more at popularmechanics.com ...


TOPICS: Conspiracy; Education; Health/Medicine
KEYWORDS: barkolution; chernobyl; dna; dogs
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To: ProtectOurFreedom

GMTA!...................


21 posted on 02/24/2025 9:33:22 AM PST by Red Badger (Homeless veterans camp in the streets while illegals are put up in 5 Star hotels....................)
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To: Carry_Okie

Most likely wants some USAID money to study them more.


22 posted on 02/24/2025 9:33:35 AM PST by riverrunner
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To: Quality_Not_Quantity
And what a worthless article - says absolutely nothing of any significance.

Agree. Catchy title, vacuous words in the article.

23 posted on 02/24/2025 9:34:20 AM PST by NautiNurse (Beulah is the name Hillary! gave to her roly-poly belly blubber. TMI. )
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To: dennisw
The practice of purposefully irradiating seeds in outer space to induce advantageous mutations, for example, is now a well-worn method for developing crops well-suited for a warming world.

I call BS on that. If you want to mutate seeds using radiation no need to go to space as a commercial method. More like USAID crony narrative supporting grant fodder. J school business and science competence, cliche’ ridden prose.

24 posted on 02/24/2025 9:36:36 AM PST by takebackaustin
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To: Quality_Not_Quantity

As the article points out, the Chernobyl wild dogs have been inbred to a significantly higher degree than usual. If I have it right, a more limited gene pool would increase the speed of beneficial adaptation through random mutation, while at the same time the higher background radiation might increase the overall rate of mutation.


25 posted on 02/24/2025 9:37:58 AM PST by PUGACHEV
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To: lee martell

It sounds like the differences are just variations in DNA, like blots that don’t line up.

Of course, the fact that this is an “Exclusion Zone”, and the animals can’t really mix their genes easily with outsiders, might be the most likely explanation.


26 posted on 02/24/2025 9:38:40 AM PST by Empire_of_Liberty
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To: lee martell; Red Badger
What are the ‘strange mutations’ of the dogs.

See Post #10 and Post #19 for authentic photos of the "strange mutations."

27 posted on 02/24/2025 9:42:28 AM PST by ProtectOurFreedom (Democrats who say ‘no one is above the law’ won’t mind going to prison for the money they stole.)
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To: ProtectOurFreedom

28 posted on 02/24/2025 9:42:57 AM PST by Yo-Yo (Is the /Sarc tag really necessary?)
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To: ClearCase_guy

That’s why they call it The Theory of Evolution. They know they can’t prove it.


29 posted on 02/24/2025 9:43:03 AM PST by GMThrust
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To: dennisw

Quick call Peter Parker! There are spiders there he needs to look at!


30 posted on 02/24/2025 9:44:00 AM PST by Fai Mao (Democrats need to go to prison.)
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To: Empire_of_Liberty

“A well-worn method for regurgitating unsubstantiated crap.”

Nice! Says it all.


31 posted on 02/24/2025 9:46:13 AM PST by ProtectOurFreedom (Democrats who say ‘no one is above the law’ won’t mind going to prison for the money they stole.)
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To: Quality_Not_Quantity

I was hoping for flippers or horns. That would be something to talk about.


32 posted on 02/24/2025 9:46:25 AM PST by Dutch Boy (The only thing worse than having something taken from you is to have it returned broken. )
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To: ClearCase_guy
Dogs stay dogs. Fruit flies stay fruit flies.

Fruit dogs?

33 posted on 02/24/2025 9:50:00 AM PST by Lazamataz (The BEST birthday present I ever got WAS DONALD TRUMP WINNING IN 2024!!!)
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To: Quality_Not_Quantity

You succinctly summed up the article.


34 posted on 02/24/2025 9:50:41 AM PST by Robert DeLong
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To: dennisw
The idea of radiation speeding up natural evolution isn’t a new one. The practice of purposefully irradiating seeds in outer space to induce advantageous mutations, for example, is now a well-worn method for developing crops well-suited for a warming world.

PM publishes a lot of anti-scientific gibberish like this. It was once naively thought that mutations could magically produce complex systems such as are ubiquitous in biology, but at best all we see are fluke cases where some kind of damage has a beneficial side effect in certain circumstances. (For example, antibiotic resistance arising because certain cellular pathways that the antibiotic uses are shut down by damage to regulatory switches. If there are alternate pathways the cell can use to survive this provides a benefit when the antibiotic is present, but the damage is just that, damage impairing a pre-existing functional system.)

35 posted on 02/24/2025 9:52:37 AM PST by EnderWiggin1970
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To: dennisw

Still, nice qualities in a dog.


36 posted on 02/24/2025 9:54:15 AM PST by ansel12 ((NATO warrior under Reagan, and RA under Nixon, bemoaning the pro-Russians from Vietnam to Ukraine.))
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To: ansel12
According to the movie “A Boy and His Dog” part of the adaptation is telepathy with a human and the ability to locate human females.

Nope. In both the short story by Harlan Ellison, and the film adaptation, telepathic dogs had been specifically bred (or genetically engineered) to be used in police work - hence their near-equal (or superior?) intelligence and telepathy.

They were not portrayed as having evolved naturally, or due to radioactive mutation, to possess those traits.

Regards,

37 posted on 02/24/2025 9:56:24 AM PST by alexander_busek (Extraordinary claims require extraordinary evidence.)
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To: takebackaustin; dennisw
The practice of purposefully irradiating seeds in outer space to induce advantageous mutations, for example, is now a well-worn method for developing crops well-suited for a warming world.

This reads like something written by an A.I. with a distinct penchant for 1950s sci-fi movies.

Regards,

38 posted on 02/24/2025 9:59:46 AM PST by alexander_busek (Extraordinary claims require extraordinary evidence.)
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To: dennisw

LOL!

One paragraph in the article says this:

“Do they have mutations that they’ve acquired that allow them to live and breed successfully in this region?” co-author Elaine Ostrander, a dog genomics expert at the National Human Genome Research Institute, told The New York Times. “What challenges do they face and how have they coped genetically?”

Well, gee, Darren Orf, isn’t that your job to explain in YOUR article?


39 posted on 02/24/2025 10:01:09 AM PST by Alas Babylon! (Repeal the Patriot Act; Abolish the DHS; reform FBI top to bottom!)
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To: dennisw

40 posted on 02/24/2025 10:04:08 AM PST by mikey_hates_everything
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