Investigating patterns of animal domestication using ancient DNA
Animal domestication is a continuous but nonlinear evolutionary process that follows different paths (trajectories) of human-animal relationships. These paths vary in structure and intensity over time and include processes like human intentionality (such as control and taming of wild animals), directed selection on behavioral and phenotypic traits and characters, human-mediated movement of domestic herds across space (migration), wild-domestic admixture, and adaptation. Because domestic animals are continuously shaped through complex interaction of these processes, gaining a better understanding of where, when and how these took place helps clarifying human prehistory and the practice and process of domestication. Studies of modern and ancient DNA (aDNA) have recently disentangled the history of several domestic species. These studies have often shown that domestication processes were far more complex than previously thought, often encompassing more than one independent domestication event, and continuously shaped by migration and admixture. Importantly, ancient DNA studies have convincingly demonstrated that inferring the past (for example, where, when and how domestication and selection took place) from
Girdland-Flink, Linus
Investigating patterns of animal domestication using ancient DNA. Animal domestication is a continuous but nonlinear evolutionary process that follows different paths (trajectories) of human-animal relationships. These paths vary in structure and intensity over time and include processes like human intentionality (such as control and taming of wild animals), directed selection on behavioral and phenotypic traits and characters, human-mediated movement of domestic herds across space (migration), wild-domestic admixture, and adaptation. Because domestic animals are continuously shaped through complex interaction of these processes, gaining a better understanding of where, when and how these took place helps clarifying human prehistory and the practice and process of domestication. Studies of modern and ancient DNA (aDNA) have recently disentangled the history of several domestic species. These studies have often shown that domestication processes were far more complex than previously thought, often encompassing more than one independent domestication event, and continuously shaped by migration and admixture. Importantly, ancient DNA studies have convincingly demonstrated that inferring the past (for example, where, when and how domestication and selection took place) from
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