5: Friendly foxes are cleverer - Domesticated foxes show evolution of social intelligence.

Also thanks to Rachel Robson

news @ nature.com - Friendly foxes are cleverer - Domesticated foxes show evolution of social intelligence.

Originally from Current Biology.

The social abilities of dogs, their ability to respond to human, is hypothesized to relate to selective breeding for friendliness. Foxes bred for friendliness but without human contact show similar social abilities, but foxes without special breeding do not.

This relies on testable evolutionary hypotheses, tests them, and allows broader inference about evolutionary processes that led to modern dogs, as well has social abilities in other species.