Wild elephants are one of many few identified species to point out indicators of self-domestication. The phenomenon has solely beforehand been documented in people and bonobos, a carefully associated primate.
Humans have bred animals to maximise traits akin to friendliness, sociability and a docile temperament in a course of known as domestication. Some researchers imagine people and bonobos have gone by an analogous course of however that they’ve naturally accomplished it to themselves.
Limor Raviv on the Max Planck Institute for Psycholinguistics within the Netherlands questioned if different species have self-domesticated too. She determined to begin with African savannah elephants (Loxodonta africana), a species with which she was already acquainted. She and her colleagues checked out how the elephants in contrast with bonobos (Pan paniscus) and people on 20 totally different measures.
They discovered that each one three species show related behaviours and share sure bodily options. Like bonobos and people, elephants are social, play, have an extended childhood and take care of the offspring of others of their group. Wild African elephants’ additionally share a shortened jawbone – a trait shared by many domesticated animals – and present restraint in aggression towards others.
Next, the researchers regarded for commonalities between the genome of domesticated animals and the genome of untamed elephants. By drawing on research of 261 mammals akin to cattle, canine, cats and horses, they constructed a listing of genes often related to domestication. They then recognized 674 genes as having a excessive probability of being handed down from earlier elephant generations.
The staff discovered that 79 of these African elephant genes have been related to domestication in different species, additional strengthening the concept that elephants developed these traits with out the direct intervention of individuals. This is important, says Raviv, as a result of elephants and people usually are not carefully associated, suggesting domestication can evolve convergently in a number of branches of the mammal evolutionary tree.
Raviv suspects Asian elephants (Elephas maximus) might also present indicators of self-domestication, however genome information was solely obtainable for African elephants on the time of the analysis. She says it’s attainable that different very smart, social animals like dolphins, whales and parrots have additionally developed self-domestication
Melinda Zeder on the Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History in Washington DC takes subject with the time period self-domestication. Domestication is a mutual course of between two species, which suggests no species might do it alone, she says. “There are parallels to domestication that are interesting to explore, but by branding it as domestication, they’re muddying the waters.”
Raviv says although self-domestication may look like “a pretty wacky idea”, it’s nonetheless value investigating the phenomenon, even when one other rationalization is afoot. Raviv and her staff at the moment are in search of indicators of self-domestication in seals, dolphins, whales and bats.
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Source: www.newscientist.com