In 1959, Soviet geneticist Dmitri Belyaev began breeding silver foxes for tameness alone; within 10 generations, they had floppy ears and curly tails, but a 2020 reanalysis argues the famous story was overstated

A groundbreaking Russian experiment, spanning decades with silver foxes, reveals a surprising truth about domestication. By solely selecting for tameness, scientists observed the emergence of dog-like traits, including floppy ears and wagging tails, without intentional breeding for these features. This suggests that our beloved pets’ characteristics may be an unintended consequence of their ancestors’ friendliness towards humans, fundamentally altering our understanding of their origins.