A Short History Of Animal Domestication
Monday, October 17, 2011 - 04:50
in Biology & Nature
What do humans look for in a good domestic animal, and how do we get it? These are questions that have been asked for years by scientists interested in the process of domestication. The short answers are that we want animals to be useful and/or attractive, and that we ensure these traits by interfering with the demographics and mating practices of the focal species. Fortunately, recent developments in genetic and statistical technologies have finally allowed researchers to explore domestication in greater detail and for a variety of species; the themes of their latest findings have just been reviewed in a new paper by authors from the University of Edinburgh. read more