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sheep
Tuesday 15 May 2007
Archaeozoological evidence indicates that sheep were first domesticated in the Fertile Crescent.
High sequence diversity (K = 1.86%, haplogroup D and O. orientalis) indicates that the wild progenitor of this domestic lineage remains unresolved.
The identification of evidence for additional domestication events adds to the emerging view that sheep were recruited from wild populations multiple times in the same way as for other livestock species such as goat, cattle, and pig.
References
Meadows JR, Cemal I, Karaca O, Gootwine E, Kijas JW. Five ovine mitochondrial lineages identified from sheep breeds of the near East. Genetics. 2007 Mar;175(3):1371-9. PMID: 17194773