Chernobyl's Dogs May Be Evolving, but Scientists Don't Know Why

Chernobyl's Dogs May Be Evolving, but Scientists Don't Know Why A new study found evidence of natural selection in the dogs of Chernobyl, but it's still unclear what drove these genetic differences and what evolutionary advantages they may provide. Dogs have roamed around the Chernobyl nuclear power plant since the 1986 catastrophe, and that may have shaped this population's genetics. The dogs living near the disaster site of the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant are not like other dogs--at least as far as their genomes go. In recent years, researchers uncovered a unique genetic profile among this population, but what's driven this distinction remained unclear. The explanation that's perhaps most tantalizing to a sci-fi author is that the persistent radiation at the nuclear site has caused mutations to accumulate in the dogs' genomes.