Domesticated

Without our domesticated plants and animals, human civilization as we know it would not exist We would still be living at subsistence level as hunter gatherers if not for domestication It is no accident that the cradle of civilization the Middle East is where sheep, goats, pigs, cattle, and cats commenced their fatefully intimate association with humans.Before the agricultural revolution, there were perhaps 10 million humans on earth Now there are than 7 billion of us Our domesticated species have also thrived, in stark contrast to their wild ancestors In a human constructed environment or man made world it pays to be domesticated.Domestication is an evolutionary process first and foremost What most distinguishes domesticated animals from their wild ancestors are genetic alterations resulting in tameness, the capacity to tolerate close human proximity But selection for tameness often results in a host of seemingly unrelated by products, including floppy ears, skeletal alterations, reduced aggression, increased sociality, and reduced brain size It s a package deal known as the domestication syndrome.Elements of the domestication syndrome can be found in every domesticated species not only cats, dogs, pigs, sheep, cattle, and horses but also recent human creations, such as domesticated camels, reindeer, and laboratory rats That domestication results in this suite of changes in such a wide variety of mammals is a fascinating evolutionary story, one that sheds much light on the evolutionary process in general.We humans, too, show signs of the domestication syndrome, which some believe was key to our evolutionary success By this view, human evolution parallels the evolution of dogs from wolves, in particular.A natural storyteller, Richard C Francis weaves history, archaeology, and anthropology to create a fascinating narrative while seamlessly integrating the most cutting edge ideas in twenty first century biology, from genomics to evo devo. Read Domesticated – kino-fada.fr Before I talk about the actual contents of the book, I have to compliment whoever made the I assume Photoshopped picture on the front cover, of a tiny white fluffy dog sitting in front of or slighly underneath a large grey wolf It perfectly raises the question that the book s actual contents try to answer how did the one, descend from the other There are chapters on wolf dog, cat, auroch cow, horse, camel, goat and sheep, and so forth In some cases, such as the dog, the wild ancestor is s Before I talk about the actual contents of the book, I have to compliment whoever made the I assume Photoshopped picture on the front cover, of a tiny white fluffy dog sitting in front of or slighly underneath a large grey wolf It perfectly raises the question that the book s actual contents try to answer how did the one, descend from the other There are chapters on wolf dog, cat, auroch cow, horse, camel, goat and sheep, and so forth In some cases, such as the dog, the wild ancestor is still available for comparison if only just In other cases, such as the cow, the wild ancestor has gone extinct although recently enough that modern genetic science might be able to resurrect it someday In all cases, Richard Francis does an expert and friendly job of taking us through the historical, genetic, and archaeological evidence for how we got from one to the other.In the case of dogs, this was a story I h...Entra como um dos melhores livros desse ano, s n o o melhor por causa de Sapiens Excelente, daqueles que recomendo para muita gente Reconta a domestica o de quase todos os bichos, falando de paleontologia, evolu o humana e animal, hist ria, gen tica e...I d read Francis Why Men Won t Ask for Directions, and saw it as a solid rebuke of the worst of evolutionary psychology, and now think I need to raise my rating a star higher.I ve read two other books in the past year about animal domestication, but Francis goes so much deeper into evolutionary biology.To give one example Francis notes that evolutionary developmental biology is a much deeper layer of evolution than that involved with domestication of animals However, he takes time to give I d read Francis Why Men Won t Ask for Directions, and saw it as a solid rebuke of the worst of evolutionary psychology, and now think I need to raise my rating a star higher.I ve read two other books in the past year about animal domestication, but Francis goes so much deeper into evolutionary biology.To give one example Francis notes that evolutionary developmental biology is a much deeper layer of evolution than that involved with domestication of animals However, he takes time to give a clear, lucid, basic description of just what evo devo is and why it s important This reminds me that I need to look to read his book before this one, Epigenetics Second, he talks about how conservative evolution is, and how so much of animal domestication is tinkering at the evolutionary edges.Third, he talks about the role of neoteny and s...Three years ago, I made the decision to adopt a pet of my own specifically, a cat In my mind, a cat was the ideal companion for someone like me independent enough that I could leave it alone while I was at work, but companionable enough to pet and play with when I was at home I had actually managed to talk my mother around to the idea, and had begun to lay down some fairly concrete plans including which rescue organisation I was going to adopt the cat from, as well as a budget for food, toys Three years ago, I made the decision to adopt a pet of my own specifically, a cat In my mind, a cat was the ideal companion for someone like me independent enough that I co...I found this one utterly fascinating and I learned a ton I m not sure what to say because the summary and table of contents explain it all pretty well It discusses the domestication of different groups of animals and how th...Intriguing and deep exploration of the effects of domestication in animals, with the structure largely dictated by species I really enjoyed this, but there were a few elements which marred my complete enjoyment and resulted in the taking of a star Francis seems to have a beef with anybody sellingbooks than him, and exudes loads of skepticism about evolutionary psychology, which is his right of course But he made claims that someone had just disproven the idea of the evolvability of a Intriguing and deep exploration of the effects of domestication in animals, with the structure largely dictated by species I really enjoyed this, but there were a few elements which marred my complete enjoyment and resulted in the taking of a star Francis seems to have a beef with anybody sellingbooks than him, and exudes loads of skepticism about evol...Extremely interesting, beautifully written book about the domestication of animals dogs, cats, cattle, camels, reindeer, rodents, sheep, goats, horses and humans Author anecdotes are kept to a minimum and when included are actually relevant to t...This book made me realise how little I actually knew about my pets, despite previously thinking I knew a fair bit.Though a little wordy at times necessarily, given the topic genetics this was such an interesting book, and for anyone out there ...Domesticated is a fascinating and engrossing read that dives into numerous subjects surrounding evolutionary traits, lineage, body physiology, andto offer a well rounded and thoroughly researched read on the stress induced proces...Well, this was a huge disappointment The cover claims that Francis is a natural born storyteller No, he s not If this was supposed to be a pop science book aimed at the masses, it missed by a country mile It s dry as sand, full of jargon and aimed at biologists and not much else He also has a thing against Richard Dawkins which just reads like bitching and not constructive criticism Most of the photos are from Wikimedia Commons.I hope someone who knows how to write winds up tackling this Well, this was a huge disappointment The cover claims that Francis is a natural born storyteller No, he s not If this was supposed to be a pop science book aimed at the masses, it missed by a country mile It s dry as sand, full of jargon and aimed at biologists and not much else He also has a thing against Richard Dawkins which just reads like bitching and not constructive criticism Most of the photos are from Wikimedia Commons.I hope someone who knows how to write winds up tackling this topic Desp...

• English
• 14 July 2018
Richard C. Francis
• Paperback
• 496 pages
• 0393353036
• Richard C. Francis
• Domesticated