Editing Chicken (section)

=== Domestication ===

{{further|Domestication}}

[[File:Chicken domestication and dispersal.svg|thumb|upright=2|Chicken domestication and dispersal;<ref name="Lawal"/> possibility of early arrival in Americas<ref name="Borrell 2007"/><ref name="Storey 2007"/>]]

According to one early study, a single domestication event of the [[red junglefowl]] in present-day [[Thailand]] gave rise to the modern chicken with minor transitions separating the modern breeds.<ref name="oneMatriarch">{{citation |title=One subspecies of the red junglefowl (Gallus gallus gallus) suffices as the matriarchic ancestor of all domestic breeds |first1=A. |last1=Fumihito |first2=T. |last2=Miyake |first3=S. |last3=Sumi |first4=M. |last4=Takada |first5=S. |last5=Ohno |first6=N. |last6=Kondo |journal=PNAS |date=December 20, 1994 |volume=91 |number=26 |pages=12505–12509 |doi=10.1073/pnas.91.26.12505 |pmid=7809067 |bibcode=1994PNAS...9112505F |pmc=45467 |doi-access=free }}</ref> The red junglefowl is well adapted to take advantage of the vast quantities of seed produced during the end of the [[Bamboo#Mass flowering|multi-decade bamboo seeding cycle]], to boost its own reproduction.<ref>{{citation |first=Rick |last=King |title=Rat Attack |date=February 24, 2009 |journal=Nova and National Geographic Television |url=https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/nature/rat-attack.html |access-date=August 25, 2017 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170823151419/http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/nature/rat-attack.html |archive-date=August 23, 2017 |url-status=live }}</ref> In domesticating the chicken, humans took advantage of the red junglefowl's ability to reproduce prolifically when exposed to a surge in its food supply.<ref>{{citation |first=Rick |last=King |title=Plant vs. Predator |date=February 1, 2009 |journal=NOVA |url=https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/nature/plant-vs-predator.html |access-date=August 25, 2017 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170821123509/http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/nature/plant-vs-predator.html |archive-date=August 21, 2017 |url-status=live }}</ref>

Exactly when and where the chicken was domesticated remains controversial. Genomic studies estimate that the chicken was domesticated 8,000 years ago<ref name="Lawal"/> in Southeast Asia and spread to China and India 2,000 to 3,000 years later. Archaeological evidence supports domestic chickens in Southeast Asia well before 6000&nbsp;BC, China by 6000&nbsp;BC and India by 2000&nbsp;BC.<ref name=Lawal/><ref name="West Zhou 1988">{{cite journal |last1=West |first1=B. |last2=Zhou |first2=B.X. |year=1988 |title=Did chickens go north? New evidence for domestication |journal=J. Archaeol. Sci. |volume=14 |issue= 5 |pages=515–533 |doi=10.1016/0305-4403(88)90080-5 |bibcode=1988JArSc..15..515W }}</ref><ref>{{cite journal |last1=Al-Nasser |first1=A. |last2=Al-Khalaifa |first2=H. |last3=Al-Saffar |first3=A. |last4=Khalil |first4=F. |last5=Albahouh |first5=M. |last6=Ragheb |first6=G. |last7=Al-Haddad |first7=A. |last8=Mashaly |first8=M. |title=Overview of chicken taxonomy and domestication |journal=World's Poultry Science Journal |date=June 1, 2007 |volume=63 |issue=2 |pages=285–300 |doi=10.1017/S004393390700147X |s2cid=86734013 }}</ref> A landmark 2020 Nature study that fully sequenced 863 chickens across the world suggests that all domestic chickens originate from a single domestication event of red junglefowl whose present-day distribution is predominantly in southwestern China, northern Thailand and Myanmar. These domesticated chickens spread across Southeast and South Asia where they interbred with local wild species of junglefowl, forming genetically and geographically distinct groups. Analysis of the most popular commercial breed shows that the White Leghorn breed possesses a mosaic of divergent ancestries inherited from subspecies of red junglefowl.<ref>{{cite journal |title=863 genomes reveal the origin and domestication of chicken |year=2020 |doi=10.1038/s41422-020-0349-y |s2cid=220050312 |last1=Wang |first1=Ming-Shan |last2=Thakur|first2=Mukesh |last3=Peng |first3=Min-Sheng |last4=Jiang |first4=Yu |last5=Frantz |first5=Laurent Alain François |last6=Li|first6=Ming |last7=Zhang|first7=Jin-Jin |last8=Wang |first8=Sheng |last9=Peters |first9=Joris |last10=Otecko |first10=Newton Otieno |last11=Suwannapoom |first11=Chatmongkon |last12=Guo |first12=Xing |journal=Cell Research |volume=30 |issue=8 |pages=693–701 |pmid=32581344 |pmc=7395088 |display-authors=6}}</ref><ref>{{cite journal |last1=Liu |first1=Yi-Ping |last2=Wu |first2=Gui-Sheng |last3=Yao |first3=Yong-Gang |last4=Miao |first4=Yong-Wang |last5=Luikart |first5=Gordon |last6=Baig |first6=Mumtaz |last7=Beja-Pereira |first7=Albano |last8=Ding |first8=Zhao-Li |last9=Palanichamy |first9=Malliya Gounder |last10=Zhang |first10=Ya-Ping |display-authors=6 |title=Multiple maternal origins of chickens: Out of the Asian jungles |journal=Molecular Phylogenetics and Evolution |date=January 2006 |volume=38 |issue=1 |pages=12–19 |doi=10.1016/j.ympev.2005.09.014 |pmid=16275023 |bibcode=2006MolPE..38...12L }}</ref><ref>{{cite journal |last1=Zeder |first1=Melinda A. |last2=Emshwiller |first2=Eve |last3=Smith |first3=Bruce D. |last4=Bradley |first4=Daniel G. |title=Documenting domestication: the intersection of genetics and archaeology |journal=Trends in Genetics |date=March 2006 |volume=22 |issue=3 |pages=139–155 |doi=10.1016/j.tig.2006.01.007 |pmid=16458995 }}</ref>