![]() ![]() Some scientists argue these changes made us more sociable, helping us to develop complex languages and culture. Perhaps more surprisingly, modern humans also show features of domestication syndrome, when compared to our ancient ancestors. Wild self-domestication is most common in isolated sub-populations, like on islands, and may overlap with a similar phenomenon known as the “island effect”. ![]() Urban foxes are another.īonobos are a species who are believed to have ‘self-domesticated’. The bonobo (a great ape closely related to the chimpanzee) is one famous example of an animal that has undergone these changes without human intervention. Surprisingly, very similar changes sometimes also appear in wild animals, leading some scientists to think they “self-domesticated” in some way. For example, dogs have many, and camels only a few.īut each change occurs in more than one domesticated species. Not all domesticated animals share all these features. Like shorter faces, smaller teeth, more fragile skeletons, smaller brains, and different colours in skin, fur, and feathers. Why so many domesticated mammals have floppy earsīut other common changes don’t seem at all useful to humans – or to the animals themselves. Ancient humans would’ve preferred docile animals, and likely selected breeding stock for tameness. All domesticated animals are calmer than their wild ancestors naturally were. The most commonly shared change is tamer behaviour.
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