domestication

Credit: CC0 Public Domain The cacao tree (Theobroma cacao), whose beans (cocoa) are used to make products including chocolate, liquor and cocoa butter, may have spread from the Amazon basin to the other regions of South and Central America at least 5,000 years ago via trade routes, suggests a paper published in Scientific Reports. These findings,…

By Washington University in St. Louis May 6, 2023Research from Washington University in St. Louis calls for a reappraisal of the process of plant domestication, based on almost a decade of observations and experiments. The behavior of erect knotweed, a buckwheat relative pictured here, has WashU paleoethnobotanists completely reassessing our understanding of plant domestication. Credit: Natalie Mueller / Washington University in St. LouisThe story of how ancient wolves became humanity’s closest companions by the campfire…

A group of scientists is making a provocative argument about the nature of elephants. They posit that these gentle giants have achieved self-domestication, meaning they’ve self-selected for traits commonly found in humans and our domesticated animals, particularly reduced aggression. Not every outside expert agrees with the team’s conclusions, though.Rare Polar Bear Attack in Canada | Extreme EarthThe research comes from scientists in the U.S., the Netherlands, and Spain. Their argument is premised on an idea about the…

The history of cat domestication stretches back nearly 10,000 years, evidence from a new genetic study shows, and the bond between humans and felines was most likely sparked by a shift in the lifestyles of our ancestors.An international team of researchers looked at the genotypes of more than 1,000 random-bred cats from Europe, Asia and Africa, concentrating on almost 200 genetic markers that established links between areas and breeds. "One of the DNA main markers we studied were microsatellites, which mutate very…

A man rides on donkey-cart through a flooded street after heavy monsoon rains in Jacobabad, Pakistan. Despite transforming history as beasts of burden essential for transporting goods and people, the humble donkey has long been woefully understudied.…

Donkeys may lack the popularity and prestige of horses, but these diminutive equines played an outsize role in human history. Now, an extensive analysis of the genomes of both modern and ancient donkeys reveals they were domesticated only once, in East Africa around 5000 B.C.E. Soon after, they rapidly spread throughout Eurasia and became distinctive populations, with limited mixing between them. That likely helped donkeys adapt to serve as critical pack animals for…