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There is a fascinating story documented in "How to Tame a Fox (and Build a Dog): Visionary Scientists and a Siberian Tale of Jump-Started Evolution" by by Lee Alan Dugatkin and Lyudmila Trut (https://www.amazon.com/How-Tame-Fox-Build-Dog/dp/022644418X) about a long-running domestication of silver foxes, started in USSR in 1950ies and still running. One of the early comments in that book is what Dmitri Belyaev (idea man) really wanted was to run this on chimpanzees, but (paraphrasing his words) "a) due to breeding cycles the minimum time to results 6 centuries" and "b) the ethics of doing this would not pass any committee". He chose foxes since they breed once a year and he was able to justify it on commercial grounds (fur production). Results are absolutely spectacular, as the book lovingly documents

Not all animals are the same. Some have "evolved to evolve". Foxes/dogs/coyotes/rabbits have evolved to rapidly colonize new habitat and so can likely be manipulated more quickly than even faster-breeding animals. Part of this is a rate of mutation and part is a reserve of recessive traits from past environments that can be readily deployed again. Start with some black foxes and in a couple generations you will probably be able to breed white foxes. Start with black ants and you could go centuries without breeding a white ant.

Part of that ability to rapidly evolve is in the structure of the genome. Canids have more chromosomes than most other mammals which increases the odds of passing on advantageous genes to the next generation without having too many other random crappy genes come along for the ride.

Earlier: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=42594851

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