Bones from the turn of the Holocene indicate that humans were feeding canines—including wolves and coyotes—fish over 10,000 years ago, Reading time 3 minutes Who let the dogs out? It remains unclear, ...

A raccoon in a trash can. With dexterous childlike hands and cheeky “masks,” raccoons are North America’s ubiquitous backyard bandits. The critters are so comfortable in human environments, in fact, ...

Cats, dogs and farm animals are what come to mind when we think of domesticated animals. For ages, domestication has been portrayed as a uniquely human accomplishment, where species become domestic ...

There is a good reason why so many humans refer to dogs as man’s best friend. Humans domesticated dogs more than 11,000 years ago, before we even invented agriculture. Today dogs are popular as pets ...

Wild boars and red junglefowl gave rise to common pigs and chickens. These animals' genes evolved to express themselves differently, leading to signatures of domestication -- such as weaker bones and ...

"The first modern scholarly synthesis of animal domestication Across the globe and at different times in the past millennia, the evolutionary history of domesticated animals has been greatly affected ...

A recent study published in the journal Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences suggests that wolves may have ...

New research transforms our understanding of the circumstances and timing of the domestication of chickens, their spread across Asia into the west, and reveals the changing way in which they were ...

Forbes contributors publish independent expert analyses and insights. I write about biodiversity and the hidden quirks of the natural world. A domesticated animal is one that has been bred and adapted ...

There are few things more joyful, if occasionally nerve-wracking, than having a pet in your home. And plenty of people agree. According to the American Pet Products Association, around 94 million ...