Ancient DNA Study Pokes Holes in Horse Domestication Theory | 台北市立動物園資訊網

2018年5月9日—Scientistsbelievethatthedomesticationofthehorsesome5,000yearsagowasamajorturningpointinhumanhistory:Peopleweresuddenly ...

“We actually have two independent events of horse domestication,” says Peter de Barros Damgaard[1], a molecular biologist from the Natural History Museum of Denmark who led the project. “While it is true that the Botai were the first to domesticate the horses, it wasn’t their horses that became widespread.”

The Przewalskis Horse is considered the closest genetic relative to the horse population of the ancient Botai.

Photograph by Joel Sartore, National Geographic Photo Ark

The findings open up big questions about whose horses ended up evolving into modern-day steeds. “It’s new territory,” says Sandra Olsen[2], senior curator of archaeology at the University of Kansas’ Biodiversity Institute. (Olsen was not involved with the research.) "Whats interesting to me is the isolation of the Botai people and their horses," says Olsen, whose research focuses on the human-horse relationsh...