How radiation is helping wolves thrive in Chernobyl

[Rokinbokinstudios]

What if one of those wolves attacks someone?

*+10 RADS*

[TheJimmyp]

I thought that was how evolution worked

[Anne_Onymous]

Gee... Who would have ever guessed nature would evolve to survive in a new environment? Could have never predicted this one.

[Thomas_Andersn]

*Anything that doesn't kill u makes u Stranger*

[Bogwedgle]

Natural selection happened. More cancerproof wolves did significantly better in the exclusion zone because cancer is the primary downside to prolonged low level radiation exposure. It has been ten or fifteen generations of wolves since the disaster, plenty enough time for beneficial genes to spread through the population as they'd drastically extend the reproductive lifespan of wolves compared to less cancer resistant ones.

[alrightythen]

Genes were already there, which is the interesting bit

[lauralafauve]

That may be an over simplification.
This is a change that has occurred over generations.
What was the health of previous generations?

[larysab.]

But... Isn't it like wolves with these genes survived long enough to pass these genes and those, who didn't have them just died out very quickly? 🤔

[TheBaumcm]

Likely, they already had the existing mutation at the time of Chernobyl disaster and only those who had all of the mutations, or many of them, survived to pass on their genes.

[Dilaughosaurus]

It's reassuring to know that if we blow ourselves up, life will continue.

[MonkyTube]

well maybe those with that traits survived better

[ullwusx]

Very interesting & helpful for further studies ❤

[Nickb-fkvi]

life has been attacked by radiation since it started

[Bahador.B]

Pffft, Fallout came up with ghouls like before the year 2000 in Fallout 1.

[kaarlimakela]

We already know cancer patients get radiation treatment. This says more about how interesting genes work.

[bowenmadden]

I wonder if radiation exposure has been a common enough event over the course of life on Earth (thinking to theories that solar flares or hypernovas may have caused ozone depletion events), that organisms have series of genes that, when exposed to prolonged radiation, somehow activate to offer protective effects against cancers and other radiation-related damage.

If so, then when radiation exposure drops to normal levels, these genes have less selective pressure to be preserved, and accumulate predictable mutations that cause them to stop working. Once radiation rises in the environment, perhaps the body attempts to undo these mutations, or perhaps radiation itself causes predictable mutations that "correct" the old ones, either way allowing the cancer-protection genes to reactivate within a few generations or even a lifetime rather than over hundreds or thousands.

The true selective pressure, then, is not to have suddenly gained cancer protection but for an organism to have preserved the ability to re-acquire cancer protection quickly, ultimately being more adaptable and surviving in the long run after one or many irradiation events and possibly even mass extinctions. Though this selective pressure could also be as simple as forests receding forcing an animal to move into a plains or other more open environment, where it cannot find shade from the sun as readily as its ancestors could, but is otherwise able to survive? All speculation of course—I'm sure this isn't quite how genes work. 😅

[GeneralDimSum]

Wow so what doesn’t kill you, literally makes you stronger

[beastinshow]

Dire wolves ahead? *gleeful squeal* ^^

[stephenmadl]

The earth was significantly more radioactive in the past. It is one factor that drove evolution and diversification.

[SouthWest]

The nuclear testing in the 40s and 50s on the Marshall Islands and its peoples in the surrounding area. This need to be reported on now some 70 plus years later.