Rabbits and the Specious Origins of Domestication
Open accessAbstract
Rabbits are commonly thought to have been domesticated in ∼AD600 by French monks. Using historical and archaeological records, and genetic methods, we demonstrate that this is a misconception and the general inability to date domestication stems from both methodological biases and the lack of appreciation of domestication as a continuum.
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The divergence range between G. gallus spadiceus and the lineage from which domestic chickens were derived cannot be equated with the initiation of a domestication process and represents an upper bound on the chicken domestication timeframe.
“Importantly, this range cannot be equated with the initiation of a domestication process. Instead, this timeframe represents the divergence between G. gallus spadiceus and the lineage from which domestic chickens were derived (17), and thus represents an upper bound on the chicken domestication timeframe.”
From The biocultural origins and dispersal of domestic chickens (2022) · cites this paper as [17]
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- Authors
- Irving-Pease, E. K., Frantz, L. A. F., Sykes, N., Callou, C., & Larson, G.
- Affiliations
- University of Oxford (GB)
- Queen Mary University of London (GB)
- University of Nottingham (GB)
- Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (FR)
- Corresponding author
- Larson, Greger
- Venue
- Trends in Ecology & Evolution
- Publisher
- Elsevier BV
- Published
- 2018-03
- Volume
- 33
- Issue
- 3
- Pages
- 149-152
- ISSN
- 0169-5347 (ISSN-L)
- OpenAlex
- W2785596416
- Cited by
- 51
- References
- 12
- Citations by year
- 2026: 2 · 2025: 6 · 2024: 6 · 2023: 5 · 2022: 6 · 2021: 9 · 2020: 7 · 2019: 6 · 2018: 4
- FWCI
- 4.77
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- green
- qmro.qmul.ac.uk
- Locations
- Trends in Ecology & Evolution (publishedVersion)
- PubMed (publishedVersion)
- Queen Mary Research Online (Queen Mary University of London) (submittedVersion)
- HAL (submittedVersion)
- Funders
- European Research Council (ERC-2013-StG-337574-UNDEAD)
- Natural Environmental Research Council (NE/K005243/1, NE/K003259/1)
- Topics
- Physical Sciences › Earth and Planetary Sciences › Paleontology › Archaeology and ancient environmental studies
- Life Sciences › Biochemistry, Genetics and Molecular Biology › Genetics › Genetic and phenotypic traits in livestock
- Life Sciences › Agricultural and Biological Sciences › Animal Science and Zoology › Rabbits: Nutrition, Reproduction, Health
- Keywords
- rabbits, historical documents, archaeological record, methodological bias
- MeSH terms
- Domestication, Animals, Archaeology, Biological Evolution, Rabbits
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