EVOLUTION
74 BBC Wildlife April 2020thingswithpinpointprecision. Animals
suchasthespider-goat are the outcome.
Evolutionis theability of life to
changeovertime.It’sunderpinned by
spontaneouslyoccurring changes to
thegeneticcode,butnow humans can
deliberatelyamendthe DNA of living
things.Wecanrewrite the code of life,
butthisis onlythebeginning.
Humansarenowaltering the planet
onanunprecedentedscale. Natural
habitatsarebeingrazed, cities are
expanding,poachingis taking its
toll,andinvasivespecies are being
transportedaroundthe globe. The world
is nowalmost1°Cwarmer than it was
beforewidespreadindustrialisation, andbeengeneticallymodified.Heis,
ofcourse,a dog.
Afterwolves,wedomesticated
otheranimals.A fewhundred
yearsago,westartedtopairkey
individualstogetherina process
calledselectivebreeding.This
generatedthemanydomestic
varietiesthatsurroundustoday,
fromHolsteincattletoMerinosheep.
About 20 yearsago,wedeveloped
theabilitytoclonemammalsand
this,too,hasbecomea toolof
selectivebreeding.Now,inthelast
10 years,a newsuiteofmolecular
methodsenablesscientiststo
deliberatelyaltertheDNAoflivingW
arning! You
may find the
following facts
shocking!
On a ranch
in Utah, there
are goats that
contain spider DNA. They don’t have
eight legs and they can’t spin webs,
but the unusual bleaters do have a
superpower of sorts. They make spider
proteins in their milk. The proteins can
be spun into silk and the material is so
strong that scientists think one day it
could be used to make suspension cables.
Meanwhile, in Argentina, wealthy polo
players are cloning their best ponies.
Now copies of elite equines compete in
high-profile competitions, whilst in South
Korea, cloned sniffer dogs patrol the
arrivals lounge at Seoul Incheon Airport.
Flabbergasted? Then let me drop one
more bombshell. I was able to use the
Internet to source and buy a genetically
modified wolf pup. All grown up, he now
lives in our house where I let him sleep
on our bed and play with our children.
Is it madness? Let me explain...Altering course
For most of the last three billion years
or so, life on Earth was shaped by
natural forces – such as the changing
of the seasons, the shifting of tectonic
plates, and the waxing and waning of
giant ice sheets. Evolution tended to
happen slowly, with species crafted
across millennia. Then, a few hundred
thousand years ago, along came bolshie,
big-brained primates that decided to call
themselves Homo sapiens. As we spawned
technology and dribbled around the
globe, things started to change.
Forty thousand years ago, we began
to domesticate wildlife, starting with the
wolf. Along theway,weinadvertently
changed the DNAoftheselifeforms
and rerouted theirevolutionary
trajectory. Thebeastthat
slumbers at thefootofmy
bed is the productof
this. His DNAdiffers
from that of hiswild
ancestors by around
0.5 per cent, soyou
could say that he’s“ We see nothing of theseslow
changes in progress, untilthe
hand of time has marked
the long lapse of ages.”
C h a r l e s D a r w i nBelow: evolution is
happening at a rate
that Darwin would
never have dreamt of.
Bottom: narwhals can
mate with belugas,
resulting in ‘narlugas’.