Editing Domestication (section)

=== Mammals ===

{{further|List of domesticated animals}}

[[File:Tibet ~ Camel Caravan (3747098653) (cropped).jpg|thumb|While dogs were [[Commensalism|commensal]]s, and sheep were kept for food, [[camel]]s were domesticated as [[pack animal|working animals]].<ref name="zeder2012" />]]

The beginnings of mammal domestication involved a protracted [[coevolution]]ary process with multiple stages along different pathways. There are three proposed<!--Zeder 2012--> major pathways that most mammal domesticates followed into domestication:<ref name="zeder2012"/><ref name="larson2014"/><ref name="marshall2014"/>

# [[Commensalism|commensals]], adapted to a human niche (e.g., [[dogs]], [[cats]], possibly [[pigs]])<ref name="zeder2012"/>
# prey animals sought for food (e.g., [[sheep]], [[goats]], [[cattle]], [[water buffalo]], [[Domestic yak|yak]], pig, [[reindeer]], [[llama]] and [[alpaca]])<ref name="zeder2012"/>
# animals targeted [[pack animal|for draft]] and [[Equestrianism|riding]] (e.g., [[horse]], [[donkey]], [[camel]]).<ref name="zeder2012"/>

Humans did not intend to domesticate mammals from either the commensal or prey pathways, or at least they did not envision a domesticated animal would result from it. In both of those cases, humans became entangled with these species as the relationship between them intensified, and humans' role in their survival and reproduction gradually led to formalized [[animal husbandry]].<ref name="larson2014"/> Although the directed pathway for draft and riding animals proceeded from capture to taming, the other two pathways are not as goal-oriented, and archaeological records suggest that they took place over much longer time frames.<ref name="larson2013">{{cite journal |last=Larson |first=Greger |date=2013 |title=A population genetics view of animal domestication |journal=[[Trends in Genetics]] |volume=29 |issue=4 |pages=197–205 |doi=10.1016/j.tig.2013.01.003 |pmid=23415592 |url=http://www.palaeobarn.com/sites/domestication.org.uk/files/downloads/98.pdf |access-date=January 2, 2016 |archive-date=June 8, 2019 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190608065300/http://www.palaeobarn.com/sites/domestication.org.uk/files/downloads/98.pdf |url-status=dead }}</ref>

Unlike other domestic species selected primarily for production-related traits, dogs were initially selected for their behaviors.<ref name="Serpell Duffy 2014">{{cite book |last1=Serpell |first1=J. |last2=Duffy |first2=D. |contribution=Dog Breeds and Their Behavior |title=Domestic Dog Cognition and Behavior |editor-first=Alexandra |editor-last=Horowitz |location=Berlin / Heidelberg |publisher=Springer |date=2014}}</ref><ref name="Cagan Blass 2016">{{cite journal |last1=Cagan |first1=Alex |last2=Blass |first2=Torsten |title=Identification of genomic variants putatively targeted by selection during dog domestication |journal=[[BMC Evolutionary Biology]] |volume=16 |pages=10 |date=2016 |issue=1 |doi=10.1186/s12862-015-0579-7 |doi-broken-date=December 2, 2024 |pmid=26754411 |pmc=4710014 |bibcode=2016BMCEE..16...10C |doi-access=free}}</ref> The dog was domesticated long before other animals,<ref name="larson2012"/><ref name="perri2016">{{cite journal |last1=Perri |first1=Angela |title=A wolf in dog's clothing: Initial dog domestication and Pleistocene wolf variation |journal=[[Journal of Archaeological Science]] |volume=68 |pages=1–4 |date=2016 |doi=10.1016/j.jas.2016.02.003 |bibcode=2016JArSc..68....1P}}</ref> becoming established across [[Eurasia]] before the end of the [[Late Pleistocene]] era, well before [[agriculture]].<ref name="larson2012">{{cite journal |last=Larson |first=Greger |date=2012 |title=Rethinking dog domestication by integrating genetics, archeology, and biogeography |journal=[[Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America]] |volume=109 |issue=23 |pages=8878–8883 |pmid=22615366 |pmc=3384140 |doi=10.1073/pnas.1203005109 |bibcode=2012PNAS..109.8878L |doi-access=free }}</ref>

The archaeological and genetic data suggest that long-term bidirectional [[gene flow]] between wild and domestic stocks – such as in [[donkey]]s, [[horse]]s, New and Old World camelids, goats, sheep, and pigs – was common.<ref name="larson2014">{{cite journal |last1=Larson |first1=Greger |last2=Fuller |first2=Dorian Q. |date=2014 |title=The Evolution of Animal Domestication |journal=[[Annual Review of Ecology, Evolution, and Systematics]] |volume=45 |pages=115–136 |url=http://www.palaeobarn.com/sites/domestication.org.uk/files/downloads/112.pdf |doi=10.1146/annurev-ecolsys-110512-135813 |s2cid=56381833 |access-date=January 19, 2016 |archive-date=May 13, 2019 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190513194442/http://www.palaeobarn.com/sites/domestication.org.uk/files/downloads/112.pdf |url-status=dead }}</ref><ref name="marshall2014">{{cite journal |last=Marshall |first=F. |date=2013 |title=Evaluating the roles of directed breeding and gene flow in animal domestication |journal=Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America |volume=111 |issue=17 |pages=6153–6158 |doi=10.1073/pnas.1312984110 |pmid=24753599 |pmc=4035985 |bibcode=2014PNAS..111.6153M |doi-access=free}}</ref> 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 apply to other domesticated animals.
<ref name="frantz2015">{{cite journal |last=Frantz |first=L. |s2cid=205350534 |date=2015 |title=Evidence of long-term gene flow and selection during domestication from analyses of Eurasian wild and domestic pig genomes |journal=[[Nature Genetics]] |volume=47 |issue=10 |pages=1141–1148 |doi=10.1038/ng.3394 |pmid=26323058}}</ref><ref name="pennisi2015">{{cite journal |last=Pennisi |first=E. |author-link=Elizabeth Pennisi |date=2015 |title=The taming of the pig took some wild turns |journal=[[Science (journal)|Science]] |doi=10.1126/science.aad1692}}</ref>

The 2023 [[Parasite-stress theory|parasite-mediated domestication]] hypothesis suggests that [[endoparasites]] such as [[helminths]] and [[protozoa]] could have mediated the domestication of mammals. Domestication involves taming, which has an endocrine component; and parasites can modify endocrine activity and [[microRNA]]s. Genes for resistance to parasites might be linked to those for the domestication syndrome; it is predicted that domestic animals are less resistant to parasites than their wild relatives.<ref name="Skok 2023a">{{cite journal |last=Skok |first=J. |date=2023a |title=The Parasite-Mediated Domestication Hypothesis |journal=Agricultura Scientia |doi=10.18690/agricsci.20.1.1 |volume=20 |issue=1 |pages=1–7 |doi-access=free}}</ref><ref name="Skok 2023b">{{Cite journal |last=Skok |first=J. |date=2023b |title=Addendum to "The parasite-mediated domestication hypothesis" |journal=OSF |doi=10.31219/osf.io/f92aj |doi-access=free}}</ref>

{{anchor|Insects}}