Over the millennia, we dabbled with the domestication of many species. But only a few — most notably, the cow, goat, sheep, chicken, horse, pig, dog and cat — have proved themselves so useful that they have piggybacked their way across the globe, flourishing almost everywhere humans do. But why just those animals?
Wild animals also pose a danger to human health and safety through disease and parasites. There is no wild animal who wants to be kept as a captive by humans; being in captivity does not take away the wild genetic history of any wild animal.
The first animal to be domesticated is believed to be the wolf before the Neolithic Age around 12000 BC, which has evolved over the years into a dog species. Wild boar was domesticated in Europe, Asia, North Africa and Oceania 10,000 years ago. The reindeer were probably one of the first herbivores to be domesticated.
The categories used in the Taxon group column are:
Pathways
Over the millennia, we dabbled with the domestication of many species. But only a few — most notably, the cow, goat, sheep, chicken, horse, pig, dog and cat — have proved themselves so useful that they have piggybacked their way across the globe, flourishing almost everywhere humans do.
Only 14 large animals have been domesticated: sheep, goat, cow, pig, horse, Arabian camel, Bactrian camel, llama and alpaca, donkey, reindeer, water buffalo, yak, Bali cattle, and Mithan (gayal, domesticated Gaur).
Cattle are the most versatile domesticated animals on the planet. When killed for meat, their carcass yields oil, fat, bone, twine and other useful materials, while their hides give us leather for clothes, shoes and shelter.
The first animals to be domesticated for food use are thought to be sheep, between 11,000 and 9,000 B.C. in Southwest Asia. Goats followed later around 8,000 BC. Both animals were used for their meat, milk, and coats, and became an integral part of nomadic communities.
GoatsGoats were probably the first animals to be domesticated, followed closely by sheep. In Southeast Asia, chickens also were domesticated about 10,000 years ago. Later, people began domesticating larger animals, such as oxen or horses, for plowing and transportation.
Zooarchaeology has identified three classes of animal domesticates:Pets (dogs, cats, hamsters, etc.)Livestock (cattle, sheep, pigs, goats, etc.)Beasts of burden (horses, camels, donkeys, etc.)
Here's a timeline of some of the most important creatures we've made part of our lives.Dogs (14,000-40,000 years ago)Goats (10,000-11,000 years ago)Cattle (10,000 years ago)Horses (6,000 years ago)Cats (4,000 years ago)
Dogs may have been domesticated and kept as pets since Paleolithic times, as can be surmised from the paintings and carvings that archaeologists have found in ancient campsites and tombs. It is likely that the dog was not only the first domesticated species but also the first animal kept as a pet.
Great Danes may hold the record for the tallest dogs in existence, but the English Mastiff breed holds the title for the heaviest. At a record-breaking 155.5kg, Zorba the English Mastiff from London was recognised by the Guinness Book of World Records as the heaviest and longest dog in the world in 1989.
In the Fertile Crescent 10,000-11,000 years ago, zooarchaeology indicates that goats, pigs, sheep, and taurine cattle were the first livestock to be domesticated. Two thousand years later, humped zebu cattle were domesticated in what is today Baluchistan in Pakistan.
Most of the domestic animals familiar to us today were domesticated not long after people began farming and living in permanent settlements, between 8000 and 2500 BC.
The dog, "llama", guinea pig, turkey, Muscovy duck, stingless bee, and the cochineal insect comprise the list of known Pre- Columbian, New World animal domesticates.
Archaeozoology has identified three classes of animal domesticates: Live stock (cattle, sheep, pigs, goats, etc.)
Society finch or Bengalese finch ( Lonchura striata domestica ) White-rumped munia or striated finch ( Lonchura striata swinhoei) with some contribution from the Indian silverbill or white-throated munia ( Euodice malabarica ) unknown, may have been introduced to Japan sometime around the early 18th century CE. Japan.
Due to the somewhat unclear outlines of what precisely constitutes domestication, there are some species that may or may not be fully domesticated. There are also some species that are extensively used or kept as pets by humans, but are not significantly altered from wild-type animals.
Both species once uncommon in the wild; captive breeding has led to the American species recovering across and repopulating much of its range, while the Chinese species is nearly extinct in the wild. 3d Other reptiles. Eurasian elk or moose ( Alces alces) including subspecies Alaskan moose ( A. a. gigas ) -.
What is clear is that the ancestors of domesticated animals must have already exhibited traits that made them somehow useful to humans— traits that may have ranged from tasty meat to warm coats to a natural affinity for people. 3:14. A History of Dogs 101.
Animal domestication falls into three main groupings: domestication for companionship (dogs and cats), animals farmed for food (sheep, cows, pigs, turkeys, etc.), and working or draft animals (horses, donkeys, camels).
Animals that make good candidates for domestication typically share certain traits: 1 They grow and mature quickly, making them efficient to farm. 2 They breed easily in captivity and can undergo multiple periods of fertility in a single year. 3 They eat plant-based diets, which makes them inexpensive to feed. 4 They’re hardy and easily adapt to changing conditions. 5 They live in herds or had ancestors that lived in herds, making them easy for humans to control.
Domestic animals such as dogs, cats, and cattle have been genetically adapted over generations to live alongside humans. Domesticated animals are animals that have been selectively bred and genetically adapted over generations to live alongside humans. They are genetically distinct from their wild ancestors or cousins.
The domestication process. Domestication happens through selective breeding. Individuals that exhibit desirable traits are selected to be bred, and these desirable traits are then passed along to future generations. Wolves were the first animal to be domesticated, sometime between 33,000 and 11,000 years ago.
Wolves were the first animal to be domesticated, sometime between 33,000 and 11,000 years ago. After domesticated dogs came the domestication of livestock animals, which coincided with a widespread shift from foraging to farming among many cultures. A rancher herds sheep in the Idaho mountains.
Other animals that have modern wild counterparts, such as rabbits, face the opposite challenge: Domestic rabbits are genetically distinct from wild rabbits, but because the populations co exist, lack of understanding about their differences may lead to the assumption that domestic rabbits can survive in the wild.
We’ll also go through some features and general ideas about domestic animals. The dog , a direct descendant of the wolf, was the first animal to be domesticated. By Justin Veenema.
The origins of animal domestication. The domestication of animal species is associated with an increase in the size of the human population, and, apparently, this practice emerged in different regions at different times (multiple origins).
As we just saw, domestication involves a selection process, so domestic animals will have common characteristics as a consequence of human needs and preferences. These traits appear as a result of the selection of the agriotype – that is, the population of species whose genotype and phenotype were not manipulated by mankind –, who live in the wild and from which domesticated populations derive.
The establishment of domestication as a new way of exploiting the environment had significant consequences for the way of life and structure of human populations. While early hunters and gatherers kept their nomadic ways, the new societies of farmers and cattle breeders led significantly more sedentary lives, which helped increase the size of populations. This new lifestyle also allowed the communities to save physical energy, as they no longer had to constantly relocate nor spend long days hunting.
Examples of semi-domestic or tamed species are falconry birds and ostriches, which are now farmed for different purposes, as well as Asian elephants, whose offspring are captured, tamed and domesticated for their further exploitation. In fact, these cases can probably be considered examples of early stages of the domestication process.
Domestication was a circumstance that emerged spontaneously in a number of population centres, which led to a new way of life: farming and stockbreeding. This discovery actually had a huge impact on the lifestyle of human populations. In this post, we’ll focus on the historical significance, the origins and the different stages ...
In other words, an agriotype is the wild counterpart of a domesticated animal. In general, the appearance and body proportions of domestic animals are different to those of their agriotypes.
Animal domestication is what scholars call the millennia-long process that created the mutually beneficial relationship that exists today between animals and humans.
Not counting the domestic dog, who has been our partner for at least 15,000 years, the animal domestication process started about 12,000 years ago. Over that time, humans have learned to control animal access to food and other necessities of life by changing the behaviors and natures of their wild ancestors.
prey pathway, or game management: in which actively hunted animals were first managed (cattle, goats, sheep, camelids, reindeer, and swine)
But some of our most unpleasant diseases --tuberculosis, anthrax, and bird flu are just a few--come from the proximity to animal pens, and it is quite clear that our societies were directly molded by our new responsibilities.
The domestication of plants and animals, therefore, contributed to human evolution by providing a greater number of resources but also by generating many consequences that are still relevant in contemporary societies.
Domestication played a considerable influence in human history, as it is hypothesized that domesticating plant was the reason humans transitioned from nomadic to agricultural practices.
Because the phenotype of domesticated organisms differs from their wild counterparts, organisms that interact with domesticated species experience altered selective pressures to adapt to these novel phenotypes.
The direct effects of domestication for species. Domestication has influenced many aspects of organism life history including the behavior, genetics, demographics, and geographic range of many species. The alteration of traits is particularly well documented in modern livestock when comparing them to their wild ancestors.
A domesticated species is defined as a species bred in captivity under human control, who influence its food supply and reproduction, thus being a distinct process from taming wild-born animals . Domestication played a considerable influence in human history, as it is hypothesized ...
In plants, the accelerated domestication of species through molecular techniques such as CRISPR will expand the plant types currently used in domestication. For animals, the growing diversity and abundance of species used as livestock or the pet trade will further contribute to the effects of domestication.
Domestication allowed for denser human populations to aggregate due to the stability of resources , providing an ideal environment for diseases to transmit and to evolve faster in comparison to diseases originating from wild species.
In the origin of modern humans, hunting of wild animals and gathering of wild plants in nature were the primary subsistence strategies. Yet, about 12,000 years ago, the domestication of plants and animals began.
Since the origin of modern humans, Homo sapiens, about 200,000 years ago, hunting of wild animals and gathering of wild plants in nature were the primary subsistence strategies [ 1 ].
Domestication is a long and endless process by which animals become adapted to both humans and captive conditions ( [ 24, 25, 26 ]; for an overview of definitions of domestication, see [ 27 ]). Three main pathways of domestication have been proposed for land animals: a commensal pathway, a prey pathway, and a directed pathway [ 6, 28, 29, 30 ].
During domestication, five main genetic processes were involved [ 15, 28, 34 ], including inbreeding and genetic drift (two uncontrolled processes), natural selection in captivity and relaxation of natural selection (two partially controlled processes), and active selection (one controlled process) [ 34, 35 ].
Even though the decision to consider farmed or captive animals as domesticated is subjective and arbitrary [ 35, 41 ], most authors agree that about 40 species around the world that directly or indirectly contribute to agriculture are domesticated; this number varies between 20 and 50 following the definitions used for a domesticated animal [ 36, 42, 43, 44 ].
Ever since Darwin, the study of domestication has puzzled scientists [ 39 ]. Hundreds of articles are published each year [ 33, 39 ], as well as books, among which some are listed in Table 2. Despite this interest, both the words “domestication” and “domestic animal” remain confusing and poorly defined [ 32 ].
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When you research information you must cite the reference. Citing for websites is different from citing from books, magazines and periodicals. The style of citing shown here is from the MLA Style Citations (Modern Language Association).