Connor+Arnott

**Artificial Selection**
Artificial selection, or selective breeding, is the process of breeding plants or animals according to desired traits. The traits desired can be based on physical or behavioural features. Selective breeding is the primary cause for the domestication of many animals in our world. Nowadays, selective breeding is most commonly seen amongst the domesticated dog.

**Domesticated Dogs**
The domesticated dog, until only just within the past couple hundred years or so, was victim of this selective breeding. However, the traits bred for were merely to be not as aggressive as it's ancestor the wolf. Recently, dogs have been bred for physical features to make the dog more desirable for prospective buyers.



These purebred dogs are bred for numerous different traits, as seen in the pictures above. However, breeding for these specific traits requires a huge amount of inbreeding. Inbreeding has very unhealthy results and is a promoter of genetic diseases.

**Results Of Inbreeding**
Inbreeding is when the parents of the offspring are closely related genetically. Frequent inbreeding within an population will often cause inbreeding depression, which is when the fitness of the population decreases. Inbreeding can result in; reduced fertility, increased genetic disorders, lower birth rate, higher infant mortality, loss of immune system function and many more serious health risks.



It is very easy to see how this selective breeding effects dogs today and the health risks that it may pose.

media type="youtube" key="Yku1MSa5vRY?feature=player_detailpage" height="360" width="640"

http://www.dogbreedhealth.com/the-problem-with-pedigree-dogs/ http://www.rspca.org.au/how-you-can-help/campaigns/pedigree-dogs/five-common-problems-in-pedigree-dogs.html http://pedigreedoghealth.org/ http://pedigreedogsexposed.blogspot.ca/
 * Further Reading:**

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Selective_breeding#Animal_breeding http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Inbreeding http://www.rspca.org.uk/allaboutanimals/pets/dogs/health/pedigreedogs http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Purebred_(dog)
 * References:**

**Vestiges**
A vestigal is a part of a species that is no longer used, or important to the survival of the species. These particular parts are typically in the process of being lost. The existence of the vestiges shows how that evolution does indeed actually take place. It is evidence because it shows us the remainder of what was there before, after the species has lost the characteristic or trait.

**Examples**
There are hundreds of different examples I could mention for this. A few of these are; the human appendix, male breast tissue and nipples, wisdom teeth in humans, the human tailbone, and the wings on flightless birds. The one that I found the most shocking was that whales and some some snakes have the remains of a pelvis and thigh bones even though they do not have hind legs.

======== media type="youtube" key="OAfw3akpRe8?feature=player_detailpage" height="360" width="640" Here is a video explaining the vestigial structures stated above.

http://www.livescience.com/11317-top-10-useless-limbs-vestigial-organs.html http://animals.about.com/od/v/g/vetigal.htm http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vestigiality http://suite101.com/article/evidence-for-evolution-vestiges-and-atavisms-a266066
 * References:**

http://suite101.com/article/evidence-for-evolution-vestiges-and-atavisms-a266066 http://spectrummagazine.org/blog/2012/08/30/vestiges-natural-history-creation http://evolvingthoughts.net/2009/08/rudiments-and-vestiges-2/ http://www.labtimes.org/labtimes/issues/lt2009/lt06/lt_2009_06_14_14.pdf
 * Further Reading:**