Manning, K;
Timpson, A;
Shennan, S;
Crema, E;
(2015)
Size Reduction in Early European Domestic Cattle Relates to Intensification of Neolithic Herding Strategies.
PLOS ONE
, 10
(12)
, Article e0141873. 10.1371/journal.pone.0141873.
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Abstract
Our analysis of over 28,000 osteometric measurements from fossil remains dating between c. 5600 and 1500 BCE reveals a substantial reduction in body mass of 33% in Neolithic central European domestic cattle. We investigate various plausible explanations for this phenotypic adaptation, dismissing climatic change as a causal factor, and further rejecting the hypothesis that it was caused by an increase in the proportion of smaller adult females in the population. Instead we find some support for the hypothesis that the size decrease was driven by a demographic shift towards smaller newborns from sub-adult breeding as a result of intensifying meat production strategies during the Neolithic.
| Type: | Article |
|---|---|
| Title: | Size Reduction in Early European Domestic Cattle Relates to Intensification of Neolithic Herding Strategies |
| Open access status: | An open access version is available from UCL Discovery |
| DOI: | 10.1371/journal.pone.0141873 |
| Publisher version: | http://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0141873 |
| Language: | English |
| Additional information: | © 2015 Manning et al. This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited |
| Keywords: | Science & Technology, Multidisciplinary Sciences, Science & Technology - Other Topics, REPRODUCTIVE-PERFORMANCE, BODY-MASS, POPULATION, EVOLUTION, SHEEP, SELECTION, HUSBANDRY, DYNAMICS, ORIGINS, HISTORY |
| UCL classification: | UCL UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > School of Life and Medical Sciences UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > School of Life and Medical Sciences > Faculty of Life Sciences UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > School of Life and Medical Sciences > Faculty of Life Sciences > Div of Biosciences UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > School of Life and Medical Sciences > Faculty of Life Sciences > Div of Biosciences > Genetics, Evolution and Environment UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > UCL SLASH UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > UCL SLASH > Faculty of S&HS UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > UCL SLASH > Faculty of S&HS > Institute of Archaeology UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > UCL SLASH > Faculty of S&HS > Institute of Archaeology > Institute of Archaeology Gordon Square |
| URI: | https://discovery.ucl.ac.uk/id/eprint/1479087 |
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