3 ms·
> I'm not an expert, but I don't believe they existed as we know them today until man took an active hand in selectively breeding them into the very useful anim
by luckylion 6y ago
> I'm not an expert, but I don't believe they existed as we know them today until man took an active hand in selectively breeding them into the very useful animal they are today.
I don't know either, but that feels counter-intuitive. Would ancient humans figure "hey, see that animal over there? I bet with a selective breeding program we could make it produce milk when it calves and we'd be able to drink that and get nutrients".
- ur-whale 6y agoI do remember reading a research article a long time ago saying that is precisely what happened with wheat (did not exist in the wild as we know it today, was bred over millenia into the flour-yielding plant we know today). It's not a long shot to imagine that animals like cows and goats (or dog, for that matter, although not with food as a goal) were given the same treatment.
- jiofih 6y agoNot a long shot at all - nearly every animal you encounter today is the result of domestication or human interaction, unless you go for a safari. Even pidgeons.
- jfim 6y agoChickens have changed a lot in the last 50 years as well. This 2014 paper [0] compares the growth of chicken breeds from 1957, 1978, and 2005. The pictures of chickens at 56 days are pretty striking. [0] https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0032579119385505?via=ihub https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S003257911...