domestication news stories on Newser

Pets Helped Humans Evolve

M. Morris — Tue, 03 Aug 2010 12:56:00 CDT

The connection between humans and domesticated animals goes back millions of years and may have helped humans develop tools and even language, researchers say. The interspecies connection—nearly unique to humans and their pets and livestock—"connects the other big evolutionary leaps, including stone tools, language and domestication," a paleoanthropologist...

Were Dogs Domesticated as Dinner?

Matt Cantor — Tue, 08 Sep 2009 11:50:16 CDT

Today, they’re man’s best friend, but dogs may have originally come to humans as their best bet for dinner. Researchers in Sweden examined the DNA of dogs around the world and found that they all seemed to be of the same lineage, pointing to “a single domestication event” in southern...

Researchers Hope Canine Brain Holds Clues to Ours

Harry Kimball — Mon, 13 Apr 2009 14:40:13 CDT

At Harvard and labs across the country, researchers are turning to dogs for clues on how their brains—and ours—work, the Boston Globe reports. “Psychologists have been ignoring animals that were sleeping quietly at their feet,” one professor said, but no longer. Dogs understand pointing better than even our...

Horses Tamed Earlier Than We Thought

Harry Kimball — Thu, 05 Mar 2009 18:13:43 CST

Horses were domesticated 1,000 years earlier than thought, a finding that could prompt a rethinking of ancient human history, the BBC reports. A team from Exeter University found evidence of the use of harness bits on teeth—as well as horse meat and horse milk beverages—in Kazakhstan that...

Disney's New 'Tomorrowland' House as Bland as Leftovers

Kristina Loew — Thu, 04 Dec 2008 15:52:01 CST

In the 1950s, Disneyland wowed visitors and architecture aficionados with its dynamic vision of domesticity in its House of the Future, but, as PJ O’Rourke laments in the Atlantic , Disney’s latest house is “almost furiously unimaginative.” A peek at Disney’s domestic vision finds a future that “will be tough on...

The Cat Did Not Walk by Himself

NewsDude — Fri, 29 Jun 2007 06:53:54 CDT

Unlike most animals who were domesticated by man, cats, you cat owners will not be surprised to learn, domesticated themselves. A study published in Science concludes that some 12,000 years ago cats, attracted by mice, who were themselves attracted by grain which man had just figured out how to...

House Cat Hisstory Traced to 5 Mideast Matriarchs

Colleen Barry — Fri, 29 Jun 2007 06:04:16 CDT

The origin of 600 million house cats has been traced to five matriarchal lines in the Mideast, where the first wildcats moved close to families some 10,000 years ago and earned their keep eating vermin, the New York Times reports. House cats share striking DNA similarities with wildcats in...