where was the first animal domesticated

Full Answer

What was the 1st domesticated animal?

Scientists believe the dog was the first animal to be domesticated, though some believe it may even have been earlier. Since then, numerous animals including horses, pigs, and even honeybees have been domesticated for human purposes—like farming and companionship, among others.

When and where was animal domestication first carried out?

Origins of domestication The first attempts at domestication of animals and plants apparently were made in the Old World during the Mesolithic Period. Dogs were first domesticated in Central Asia by at least 15,000 years ago by people who engaged in hunting and gathering wild edible plants.

Who domesticated dogs first?

First dogs In 2021, a review of the current evidence infers from the timings provided by DNA studies that the dog was domesticated in Siberia 23,000 years ago by ancient North Siberians. The dog later dispersed from Siberia with the migration of peoples eastwards into the Americas and westwards across Eurasia.

When did animal domestication begin?

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. Domestic dogs are descended from wolves (Canis lupus).

When and where were cattle first domesticated?

Cattle domestication started in the 9th millennium BC in Southwest Asia. Domesticated cattle were then introduced into Europe during the Neolithic transition.

When did domestication begin in India?

The domestication process has been traced back to the period prior to the mature phase of the Indus Valley civilisation (3300 BC to 1400 BC).

What is the first domesticated animal in the Middle East?

SheepSheep and goats, cattle and pigs: 9000-7000 BC The first animals known to have been domesticated as a source of food are sheep in the Middle East. The proof is the high proportion of bones of one-year-old sheep discarded in a settlement at Shanidar, in what is now northern Iraq.

Where were sheep goats pigs and cattle first domesticated?

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.

When were chickens domesticated?

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. These are known as beasts of burden. Domesticating animals can be difficult work.

When did people start domesticating plants?

Plant Domestication. People first domesticated plants about 10,000 years ago , between the Tigris and Euphrates rivers in Mesopotamia (which includes the modern countries of Iran, Iraq, Turkey, and Syria). People collected and planted the seeds of wild plants.

What is the easiest animal to domesticate?

Domesticating animals can be difficult work. The easiest animals to domesticate are herbivores that graze on vegetation, because they are easiest to feed: They do not need humans to kill other animals to feed them, or to grow special crops. Cows, for instance, are easily domesticated. Herbivores that eat grains are more difficult to domesticate than herbivores that graze because grains are valuable and also need to be domesticated. Chickens are herbivores that eat seeds and grain.

What is the scientific name for a dog?

Dogs' scientific name is canis lupus familiaris, while the scientific name for gray wolves is canis lupus. Wild Horses. The process of domestication continues. Cowboys and other horse experts train horses. Sometimes, this is called "breaking" a horse. Training a horse to allow a saddle and rider requires an enormous amount of physical work, ...

What is domestication in encyclopaedia?

Encyclopedic Entry. Vocabulary. Domestication is the process of adapting wild plants and animals for human use. Domestic species are raised for food, work, clothing, medicine, and many other uses. Domesticated plants and animals must be raised and cared for by humans.

How many eggs do wild chickens lay?

Wild chickens only hatched a small number of eggs once a year, while domestic chickens commonly lay 200 or more eggs each year. Effects on Humans. Domesticating plants marked a major turning point for humans: the beginning of an agricultural way of life and more permanent civilizations.

Why were cotton plants domesticated?

Cotton plants were domesticated for fiber , which is used in cloth. Some flowers, such as tulips, were domesticated for ornamental, or decorative, reasons. Animal Domestication. About the same time they domesticated plants, people in Mesopotamia began to tame animals for meat, milk, and hides.

When were wolves first domesticated?

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.

What is clear about domesticated animals?

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.

What are the characteristics of a domesticated animal?

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.

What are the three groups of animals that are domesticated?

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).

How is domestication done?

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.

What animals have been genetically adapted to live alongside humans?

Domestic animals such as dogs, cats, and cattle have been genetically adapted over generations to live alongside humans.

Where do ranchers herd sheep?

A rancher herds sheep in the Idaho mountains. Many domesticated animals live in herds, making them easy for humans to control.

What were the first animals to be domesticated?

Dogs and sheep were among the first animals to be domesticated. The domestication of animals is the mutual relationship between animals and the humans who have influence on their care and reproduction. Charles Darwin recognized a small number of traits that made domesticated species different from their wild ancestors.

When did humans domesticate animals?

The domestication of animals commenced over 15,000 years before present (YBP), beginning with the grey wolf ( Canis lupus) by nomadic hunter-gatherers. It was not until 11,000 YBP that people living in the Near East entered into relationships with wild populations of aurochs, boar, sheep, and goats.

What is domestication in biology?

Domestication has been defined as "a sustained multi-generational, mutualistic relationship in which one organism assumes a significant degree of influence over the reproduction and care of another organism in order to secure a more predictable supply of a resource of interest, and through which the partner organism gains advantage over individuals that remain outside this relationship, thereby benefitting and often increasing the fitness of both the domesticator and the target domesticate ." This definition recognizes both the biological and the cultural components of the domestication process and the effects on both humans and the domesticated animals and plants. All past definitions of domestication have included a relationship between humans with plants and animals, but their differences lay in who was considered as the lead partner in the relationship. This new definition recognizes a mutualistic relationship in which both partners gain benefits. Domestication has vastly enhanced the reproductive output of crop plants, livestock, and pets far beyond that of their wild progenitors. Domesticates have provided humans with resources that they could more predictably and securely control, move, and redistribute, which has been the advantage that had fueled a population explosion of the agro-pastoralists and their spread to all corners of the planet.

How did human selection affect domesticated animals?

One study has concluded that human selection for domestic traits likely counteracted the homogenizing effect of gene flow from wild boars into pigs and created domestication islands in the genome. The same process may also apply to other domesticated animals.

How does domestication affect the brain?

Foxes that had been selectively bred for tameness over 40 years had experienced a significant reduction in cranial height and width and by inference in brain size, which supports the hypothesis that brain-size reduction is an early response to the selective pressure for tameness and lowered reactivity that is the universal feature of animal domestication. The most affected portion of the brain in domestic mammals is the limbic system, which in domestic dogs, pigs, and sheep show a 40% reduction in size compared with their wild species. This portion of the brain regulates endocrine function that influences behaviors such as aggression, wariness, and responses to environmentally induced stress, all attributes which are dramatically affected by domestication.

What are the three main pathways that animals domesticate?

It is proposed that there were three major pathways that most animal domesticates followed into domestication: (1) commensals, adapted to a human niche (e.g., dogs, cats, fowl, possibly pigs); (2) prey animals sought for food (e.g., sheep, goats, cattle, water buffalo, yak, pig, reindeer, llama, alpaca, and turkey); and (3) targeted animals for draft and nonfood resources (e.g., horse, donkey, camel). The dog was the first to be domesticated, and was established across Eurasia before the end of the Late Pleistocene era, well before cultivation and before the domestication of other animals. Unlike other domestic species which were primarily selected for production-related traits, dogs were initially selected for their behaviors. The archaeological and genetic data suggest that long-term bidirectional gene flow between wild and domestic stocks – including donkeys, horses, New and Old World camelids, goats, sheep, and pigs – was common. One study has concluded that human selection for domestic traits likely counteracted the homogenizing effect of gene flow from wild boars into pigs and created domestication islands in the genome. The same process may also apply to other domesticated animals.

How did domestication occur?

Domestication was likely initiated when humans began to experiment with hunting strategies designed to increase the availability of these prey, perhaps as a response to localized pressure on the supply of the animal. Over time and with the more responsive species, these game-management strategies developed into herd-management strategies that included the sustained multi-generational control over the animals’ movement, feeding, and reproduction. As human interference in the life-cycles of prey animals intensified, the evolutionary pressures for a lack of aggression would have led to an acquisition of the same domestication syndrome traits found in the commensal domesticates.

When were horses domesticated?

In a study released Friday, a team of archaeologists presented new evidence that horses were domesticated in 3500 B.C.— about a thousand years earlier than previous estimates. What was the first domesticated animal?

How did dogs become domesticated?

How did dogs get domesticated in the first place? The first ones were basically just tame wolves. Some researchers believe wolves were first attracted by the garbage produced by early human settlements. Those canines brave enough to approach humans, yet not so aggressive as to attack, got fed. Eventually, they no longer needed the strong jaws and sharp teeth of their feral counterparts. Their noses got smaller, too. (Dogs characteristics can change a lot in only a few generations.) After this initial process of “self-domestication,” humans started breeding dogs to help with hunting, herding, standing guard, and carrying stuff. Humans also deliberately bred dogs to be more adorable.

How old are dogs?

Based on this methodology, dogs as a species are estimated to be 15,000 to 20,000 years old. But critics argue that gene substitution is not a constant process—it speeds up, then slows down—making the estimates rough at best.

When did cats become pets?

Other pets came later. Sheep and goats were first domesticated roughly 11,000 years ago, while cats became pets around 7000 B.C. with the advent of agriculture. (As people collected and stored grain, it would attract mice, which would then attract cats.)

When did humans start using horses?

Around the same time, people started keeping cattle for consumption purposes. Several thousand years later, around 4000 B.C., as trade routes developed, humans began using oxen, donkeys, and camels to transport goods. Horses were eventually domesticated for both riding and carrying goods, but scholars differ on which purpose came first.

Where are dog skeletons found?

But ancient dog skeletons have also been unearthed in western Russia, near its border with Ukraine, and elsewhere across Europe, Asia, and Australia, suggesting that canine domestication was a widespread phenomenon. Scientists have also used DNA evidence to estimate the origin of domesticated dogs.

When were plants first domesticated?

Plants have been domesticated since around 10,000 years ago , in Mesopotamia, as National Geographic reports. (Mesopotamia was an ancient empire in Western Asia, centered around the Tigris-Euphrates river system — roughly present-day Iraq, Turkey, Kuwait, and Syria, says History .) Plants were first grown intentionally around 9500 BCE, says Encyclopedia Britannica. That's around the same time that animals were being domesticated for agricultural use, says National Geographic and others.

What animals were domesticated in Mesopotamia?

Livestock, however, came later — beasts of burden, and animals raised for their productivity, like milk, or meat, or hides. Again, we turn to Mesopotamia for the evidence; from what we've gathered through archaeological research, the Mesopotamians started domesticating animals as livestock — artificial selection — around the same time as they were creating domesticated plants — more artificial selection — about 10,000 years ago. Which came first? It seems to be a close race in the Middle East between goats and sheep, says National Geographic. Cattle and pigs joined the farm about 8,000 years ago, and horses in Central Asia about 6,000 years ago. Llamas were domesticated in Peru about 4,500 years ago.

Why were dogs important to the early settlers?

Dogs would have been helpful in hunting, protection, as living early-warning systems of predators. Livestock, however, came later — beasts of burden, and animals raised for their productivity, like milk, or meat, or hides.

What are the three classes of domesticated animals?

Archaeozoology has identified three classes of animal domesticates: Live stock (cattle, sheep, pigs, goats, etc.)

When did finches come to Japan?

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.

Can a tame be domesticated?

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.

Is the Chinese moose extinct?

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 ) -.

Overview

Definitions

History, cause and timing

Universal features

Categories

Pathways

Post-domestication gene flow

Positive selection