A new theory described today in Scientific Reports posits that hunter-gatherers whose omnivorous digestive system prevented too much protein consumption likely shared surplus meat with wolves. Those scraps may have initiated a step toward domestication. Scientific American reports: [Maria Lahtinen, a senior researcher at the Finnish Food Authority and a visiting scholar at the Finnish Museum of Natural History] did not…
Tag: domestication
Humans may have domesticated dogs by accident by sharing excess meat
Hunter-gatherers may have had more meat than they could eat, which they shared with wolves – inadvertently beginning the domestication of dogs Source: https://www.newscientist.com/article/2264329-humans-may-have-domesticated-dogs-by-accident-by-sharing-excess-meat/?utm_campaign=RSS%7CNSNS&utm_source=NSNS&utm_medium=RSS&utm_content=home…
Urban Foxes May Be Self-Domesticating In Our Midst
sciencehabit quotes Science magazine: In a famous Siberian experiment carried out the 1950s, scientists turned foxes into tame, doglike canines by breeding only the least aggressive ones generation after generation. The creatures developed stubby snouts, floppy ears, and even began to bark. Now, it appears that some rural red foxes in the United Kingdom are doing this on their own. When…
Early Humans Domesticated Themselves, New Genetic Evidence Suggests
An anonymous reader quotes a report from Science Magazine: A new study — citing genetic evidence from a disorder that in some ways mirrors elements of domestication — suggests modern humans domesticated themselves after they split from their extinct relatives, Neanderthals and Denisovans, approximately 600,000 years ago. Domestication encompasses a whole suite of genetic changes that arise as a species is…
The science behind puppy dog eyes
You know that look your dog gives you, with the raised eyebrows, that melts your heart? A new study says that wolves don’t do it. It’s a part of how dogs have evolved to communicate with humans. Source: https://earthsky.org/earth/puppy-dog-eyes-dog-communication-evolution…