Rabbits and the Specious Origins of Domestication

Evan K Irving-Pease; Laurent A F Frantz; Naomi Sykes; Cécile Callou; Greger Larson

doi:10.1016/j.tree.2017.12.009

Rabbits and the Specious Origins of Domestication

Trends Ecol Evol. 2018 Mar;33(3):149-152. doi: 10.1016/j.tree.2017.12.009. Epub 2018 Feb 14.

Authors

Evan K Irving-Pease¹, Laurent A F Frantz², Naomi Sykes³, Cécile Callou⁴, Greger Larson⁵

Affiliations

¹ The Palaeogenomics and Bio-Archaeology Research Network, Research Laboratory for Archaeology and History of Art, University of Oxford, Oxford, UK.
² The Palaeogenomics and Bio-Archaeology Research Network, Research Laboratory for Archaeology and History of Art, University of Oxford, Oxford, UK; Department of Organismal Biology, Queen Mary University of London, London, UK.
³ Department of Archaeology, University of Nottingham, Nottingham, NG7 2RD, UK.
⁴ Muséum national d'Histoire naturelle, UMR 7209 du CNRS, Archéozoologie, Archéobotanique: sociétés, pratiques et environnements, case postale 55, 55 rue Buffon, 75005 Paris, France.
⁵ The Palaeogenomics and Bio-Archaeology Research Network, Research Laboratory for Archaeology and History of Art, University of Oxford, Oxford, UK. Electronic address: greger.larson@arch.ox.ac.uk.

PMID: 29454669
DOI: 10.1016/j.tree.2017.12.009

Abstract

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.

Keywords: archaeology; modelling; population biology.

Publication types

Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't

MeSH terms

Animals
Archaeology
Biological Evolution
Domestication*
Rabbits* / genetics