Achdroplasia
occurs
in many mammalian species. In dogs, the mutation has resulted in a
modified beagle with short legs that is useful as a hunting dog, the dachshund, that
can pursue badgers ("dachs")
into their burrows. In Richard Goldschmidt's discussion of "hopeful monsters,"
the dachshund serves
as the model for an organism that has mutated in a single step in such
a way as to acquire a novel, adaptively-significant function.
